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THE 



CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE 



THE 



^' I S ^ <l 



CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE 



OR 



BRITISH HEROES IN FOREIGN WARS 



By JAMES GRANT 

AUTHOR OF "the ROMANCE OF WAR" 



LONDON 
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS 

THE BROADWAY, LUDGATE 
NEW YORK: 416 BROOME STREET 



BY JAMES GRANT. 


Price 2s. each, Fancy Boards. 


The Eoniaucc of War. 


The Cavaliers of Fortune. 


The Aide-de-Camp. 


Second to None. 


The Scottish Cavaliers. 


The Constable of France. 


BothweU. 


The Phantom Eegiment. 


Jane Seton; or, The King's 


The Girl he JIarriecf. 


Advocate. 


First Lovc'lind Last Love. 


Philip Kollo. 


Dick Rodney. 


The Blacli Watch. 


The White Cockade. 


Mary of Lorraine. 


The King's Own Borderers. 


Oliver ElUs; or, The FusiUers. 


Lady Wedderbum's Wish. 


Lucy Arden ; or, Hollywood 


Only an Ensign. 


Hall. 


Jack Manly. 


Frank Hilton ; or, The Queen's 


The Adventures of Bob Boy. 


Own. 


The Queen's Cadet. 


The Yellow Frigate. 


Under the Bed Dragon. 


Harry Ogilvie ; or. The Black 


Shall I Win Her? 


Dragoons. 


Fairer than a Fairy. 


Arthur Blane. 


The Secret Dispatch. 


Laura Everingham; or, The 


One of the Six Hundred. 


Highlanders of Glenora. 


Morley Ashton. 


The Captain of the Guard. 


Did She Love Him? 


Lelty Hyde's Lovers. 


The Ross-shire Buffs. 


GEOKGE ROUTL 


EDGE AND SOXS. 


THE BBOADW 


AT, LUDOATE. 



G9 



PREFACE. 



The biographies or sketches which compose this voliimo 
are prepared from memoraiida, the result of historical 
reading for my military romances. 

The Memoir of Colonel John Cameron first appeared. 
Avith that of Count Lally, &c., in the Dublin University 
Maga-^ine for 1854; and though he cannot strictly he 
considered*, a Soldier of Fortune, it is given here with the 
rc:5t. It was carefully compiled from a mass of private 
papers and letters submitted to me by his brother, Sir 
Duncan Cameron, Eart. ; from several letters written to 
me by his brother officers ; the MSS. Eecords of the 9 2nd 
Highlanders; and — like the sketch of Count O'Connell 
— from information readily afforded to me by the autho- 
rities at the War-Office and Horse Guards. 

In several instances, the brief Biographie Unlversellc, 
edited by Michaud, has been of service to me in fixing 
dates — esijecially in the account of the Lacys. 

The Thirty Years' War, the Septennial War, and the 
War of the Spanish Succession formed an ample field of 
enterprise for those Scots and Irish who, having nothing 
better to do at home, sold their swords and their valour 
to the highest bidder ; and who, having but little hope of 

025 



VI PREFACE. 

attaining rank in the service of Britain, sought fortune, 
fame, and a new home in the camp of the stranger. Thus 
many of the military wanderers who form the subject 
of these detached Memoirs belonged to the Sister Isle. 

The Irish troops in the service of France covered them* 
selves with glory, as the Scots had done under Gustavua 
of Sweden ; and by the Memoir of their last Colonel, 
Count O'Connell, it will be seen that they were faithful 
and true, as they had been valiant, to the end. They 
filled Europe with the fame of their exploits, and have 
left their bones on many a hard-fought battle-field ; and, 
as their song has it, — 

" They who survived fought and drank as of yore, 
But the land of their heart's hope they never saw more ; 
For on far foreign fields, from Dunkirk to Belgrade, 
Lie the soldiers and chiefs of the Irish Brigade ! " 

Under the happier influences of the present time, our 
people are no longer forced to seek their bread in foreign 
camps. The restless military spirit which produced the 
Soldier of Fortune is now on the wane ; yet it is impossi- 
ble, without emotion, to look back on the exploits of those 
brave fellows who led the armies of Europe in so many 
'* king-making victories," and won by their swords thost 
honours which were denied them in the land of their 
forefathers. 

26, Danube Street, 

Edikbubgh, 1858. 



CONTENTS. 



FAGB 

ARTHUR COUNT DE LALLY, General of the Thoops of 

Louis XV. in India 1 

COLONEL JOHN CAMERON, of the Gordon Highlanders, 

SLAIN AT QuATRE BrAS 44 

ADMIRAL SIR SAMUEL GREIG, " Father of the Russian 

Navy" 85 

ULYSSES COUNT BROWN, Marshal of the Armies of 

Maria Theresa 112 

MARSHAL LACY, the Conqueror of the Crimea .... 142 

COUNT LACY, Marshal of the Imperial Armies .... 164 

COUNT LACY, Captain General of Catalonia 1G8 

LOUIS LACY, Mariscal de Campo and Commander of Leon 169 

COLONEL BUTLER, OF the Irish Musketeers under the 

Emperor Ferdinand 178 

MARSHAL CLARKE, Due de Feltre, and Governor of Vienna 192 

GENERAL KILMAINE, Commander of Lombardt, and the 

Armee d'Angleterre 213 

COUNTS O'REILLY, O'DONNEL, and the Irish in Spain . 233 

BARON LOUDON, Marshal of the Austrian Army ... 263 

COUNT O'REILLY, Chamberlain of the Empire 292 

COUNT O'CONNELL, Knight of St. Louis, and Colonel of 

the Irish Brigade 298 

MARSHAL MACDONALD, Duke of Tarentum 308 

THOMAS DALYELL, of Binns, General of the Scottish 

Army, and First Colonel of the Scots Grey Dragoons Sfi6 



THE 

CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE, 



fife of tlje €ami k f al% 

GENERAL OF THE TROOPS OF LOUIS XV. IN THE EAST 
INDIES. 

Among the many gallant Irishmen, and those descended 
from the Irish race, who served in the armies of France, 
and sought there those honours and distinctions which 
political misfortune and studied misrule denied them 
at home, I know of none more distinguished, and of 
none whose name is more worthy of being rescued 
from oblivion, than General the Count de Lally, the ill- 
requited leader of the troops of Louis XV. in the wars of 
India. 

Arthur Lally v/as the son of Captain O'Lally, of 
TiiUoch na Daly, in Galway, who passed over to France 
soon after Limerick capitulated to Goderdt de Ginckel, 
the Dutch Earl of Athlone, and at the close of that disas- 
trous war in which the Irish troops withstood the army 
of King William. Captain Lally obtained a commission 
in the regiment of the Hon. Arthur Dillon, the same 
battalion in wliich the great Marshal Macdonald, Duke 
of Tarentum, commenced his military career as a sub- 
lieutenant. 

Soon after he settled in Fraiico, Captain Lally married 
a French lady of distinction, fhey had two children, 
the eldest of whom, Arthur, ■v>as soon after his birth 
enrolled — according to a custoia tlicu prevailmg in the 

o 



S THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

Frencli army — as a private soldier iu tlie company of his 
father. Iu this capacity he served at the famous siege 
of Barcelona under the Marechal Duke of Berwick in 
1714. His father being an officer of distinguished 
merit, and his mother being by blood allied to some 
of the most noble families in France, afforded young 
Lally every opportunity for the improvement of his 
mind and person ; thus at the age of nineteen he was 
considered one of the handsomest and most accomplished 
chevaliers in Paris. 

Without having seen much active service, he had then 
been appointed to a company in that gallant band of 
exiles whose valour contributed to win many a victory 
for the House of Bourbon — the Irish Brigade. His regi- 
ment — every member of which knew his father's worth 
and merit — received him with satisfaction, and his re- 
ception took place early in 1718. 

In the old French service this was an indispensable 
ceremony when an officer first joined. His company was 
drawn up in front of the regiment, with the drummers 
beating on the flanks. Dressed in full uniform, with his 
scarf, sword, and gorget, Arthur Lally was led forward 
by the general of division, who, when the drums ceased, 
raised his cocked hat, and said : — 

" De par le Boi ! Soldats, vous reconnoitrez Monsieur 
de Lally, votre capitaine de la compagnie, et vous lui 
obeirez en tout ce qu'il vous ordonnera pour le service du 
Roi, en cette quality." 

Another ruffle on the drums, the company fell back to 
its place in the line of the regiment of Dillon, and Arthur 
Lally was formally installed its captain. 

Though he was known by his education and spirit to 
have possessed all those qualities which were requisite 
for the perfect soldier, uniting a clear head and solid 
judgment to a light and joyous, but intrepid heart, he 
•was found to be equally qualified for the civil service of 
the State ; thus at the age of five-and-twenty he was sent 
by Louis XV. to the court of Russia on a political mission 
of importance. On this duty he acquitted himself ably. 
Lis fidelity on one hand securing the confidence of tho 



THE COUNT DE LALLY. 3 

king his master, by Lis address and winning manner ; oa 
I'lie other, obtaining the esteem and admiration of the 
Empress Catharine, whose Imsband, Peter the Great, had 
djed about a year before. On his return to France in 
1725 he proceeded to Versailles, where Louis XV., who 
had tlien attained his majority, and taken the reins of 
government from the Kegent Duke of Orleans, received 
him in the most gracious manner, and promoted him to 
the rank of colonel of infantry ; and at the head of his 
regiment he had the good fortune to acquit himself with 
distinction v/herever he was employed. 

He stood high in the favour of the two ministers who 
succeeded the Duke of Orleans, namely, the Duke de 
Bourbon and Cardinal. Fleury, then in his seventy-third 
year, a mild and amiable prelate, imder whose moderate 
and conciliatory counsels France enjoyed many years of 
peace and tranquillity. During service in France, Lally, 
though somewhat proud and lofty in his manner, suc- 
ceeded in gaining the esteem and affection of the officers 
of his regiment, among whom — even in those days of 
incessant duelling — he was fortunately successful in 
maintaining the most perfect union and harmony, while 
by his unalterable firmness subordination was equally 
maintained. 

Thus had passed the time until 1745, when' Prince 
Charles Edward Stuart projected his gallant and unfor- 
tunate rising among the clans in the Scottish Highlands. 
Entering warmly into the design of restoring the hapless 
House of Stuai-t, under which his father had served long 
and faithfully, and with whom he had eaten the bread of 
exile, Colonel Lally came boldly over to Loudon. While 
his ostensible object was to recover certain lands in Ire- 
land, to which he averred his father had a claim, his rea^ 
errand was to serve the young Prince of Scotland, to 
animate his friends, to excite the malcontents, to promise 
money, titles, and prepare the Jacobites of South Britain 
for the tempest that was gathering among the mountains 
of the north. By his boldness and determination Lally 
met with the utmost success in London ; but being some- 
what unwary, his plans and presence were discovered and 



4 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

revealed by a spy to the Duke of Cumberland, who pro* 
cured immediate orders for his arrest. 

Fortunately, however, Lally escaped those shambles to 
which " the butcher " of the clans had doomed him, and 
escaping to France about the time Cullodeu was fought, 
resumed the command of his regiment. 

A war was then waging between France and Britain, 
and the fleets of the latter had swept those of the former 
from the ocean. Admiral Hawke had destroyed the 
French fleet at Belleisle, and in that year upwards of six 
hundred prizes were taken by our cruisei*s. 

Though the French armies performed some brilliant 
actions in the Netherlands, where the Marshal-General, 
Maurice Count de Saxe, defeated and covered with dis- 
grace the troops of the Duke of Cumberland, Louis XV. 
was compelled by naval disasters, and the internal dis- 
tresses of France, to conclude a peace, a congress for 
which met at Aix-Ia-Chapelle in April, 1748 ; and the 
definitive treaty was signed in the following October. 

During this period, and until his promotion to the 
rank of lieutenant-general and commander-in chief in the 
East Indies, the life of Lally — who had now been created 
a peer of France — does not present any circumstance or 
incident worthy of attention. In 1749 he married. 

In 1750 a dispute pregnant with hostility ensued be- 
tween France and Britain respecting their mutual claims 
in North America ; various circumstances which occurred 
in the East Indies about the same time confirmed the 
idea that the short peace concluded in 1748 was about to 
end. Each country prepared for war ; but though many 
unfriendly acts were committed, and bitter recriminations 
exchanged between the Courts of London and Yersailles, 
until Britain was threatened with invasion, as a curb on 
her aggressive spirit, hostilities were not formally de- 
nounced until the month of June, 1756. The declaration 
made by George II. was mild and moderate in tenor and 
language, but the declaration promulgated by Louis XV. 
was full of severity and opprobrium. Prussia became the 
ally of the former ; Sweden and Russia joined the latter. 
In distant regions as well as at home the sanguinary 



TUE COUNT DE LALLY. O 

tstmggle was maintained, and in America France was 
stripped of all her possessions by the army of the heroic 
Wolfe. 

Immediately after the declaration of war, in the month 
of August, 1756, the Count de Lally, as Lieutenant- 
Gen eral and Commander-in-Chief of all his Most Chris- 
tian Majesty's forces in India, was appointed to conduct 
an expedition destined for those burning shores, so far 
distant, and even at that period comparatively so little 
known to EurojDeans. 

In support of this expedition the Court had destined 
six millions of livres, six strong battalions of infantry, 
and three ships of war, which were to co-operate with 
such an armament as the French India Company could 
furnish ; but the whole of the troops did not embark. 

On the 20th February, 1757, the Count de Lally, ac- 
companied by his brother IMichael, marched to Brest at 
the head of two battalions ; and though having only two 
millions of livres in the military chest, embarked on 
board the ships of the Count d'Ache, who immediately 
put to sea ; but being driven into port again by contrary 
v/inds, the squadron was detained until the 2nd of May. 

Meanwhile, Major-General the Chevalier des Soupirs, 
Lally's second in command, had already reached the 
Indian Ocean, having departed from L'Orient, the prin- 
cipal port of the India Company, on the 30th of the pre- 
ceding December, with two battalions and two millions 
of livres, with which he touched at the Isle of France, 
without accident. 

The general had very ample and important instructions 
given to him by the India Company. Some of these 
were to the following effect : — 

" The Sieur de Lally is authorized to destroy the forti- 
fications of all maritime settlements which may be taken 
from the English ; it may, however, be proper to except 
Vizagapatam, by reason of its being so nearly situated to 
Bemelipatana, which in that case would be enriched by 
the ruin of Vizagapatam ; but as to that, and the demoli- 
tion of all other places, the Sieur de Lally is to consult 
the Governor and Superior Council of Pondichcrry, and 



b THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

to Lave their opinion in writing ; but, notwithstanding, 
he is to destroy such places as he shall think proper, 
unless strong and sufficient arguments are made use of to 
the contrary ; such, for example, as the Company being 
apprehensive for some of their settlements, and that it 
would then be thought prudent and necessary to resers'e 
tlie power of exchange in case any of them should be lost. 
Nevertheless, if the Sieur de Lally should think it too 
hazardous t*? keep a place, or could not do so without 
dividing or weakening his army, then his Majesty leaves 
him to act as he may deem proper for the good of the 
service. 

" The Sieur de Lally is to allow of no English settle- 
ment being ransomed, as we may well remember that, 
after the taking of Madras last war, the English Company 
in their Council of the 14th of July, 1747, determined 
that all ransoms made in India should be annulled. In 
regard to the English troops, both otilcers and writers 
belonging to the Company, and to the inhabitants of that 
nation, the Sieur de Lally is to permit none of them to 
remain on the coast of Coromandel; he may, if he pleases, 
permit the inhabitants to go to England, and order them 
to be conducted in armed vessels to St. Helena. But as 
to the officers, soldiers, writers, and sailors belonging to 
the East India Company, he is to conduct them as soon 
as possible to the Isle de Bourbon, where the soldiers and 
sailors will be permitted to work for the inhabitants of 
that place, according to mutual agreement. It is by no 
means his Majesty's intention that the English officers, 
soldiers, and sailors should be ranscmed, as none are to be 
delivered up but by exchange, man for man, according to 
their different ranks and stations. 

" If the exchange of prisoners should by chance bo 
settled at home between the two nations, of which proper 
notice will be given to the Sieur de Lally, and that the 
islands of France and Bourbon should have more prisoners 
than it would be convenient to provide for, in that case 
it will be permitted to send a certain number to England, 
m a vessel armed for the purpose. No English officers, 
aoldiei-s, (fee, are to be permitted to remain in a plaoo 



THE COUNT BE LALLY. 7 

after it is taken ; neither are they to retire to any other 
of their settlements. 

" The Sienr de Lally is not in the least to deviate from 
the above instructions and regulations, unless there shall 
he a stipulation to the contrary ; in which case the Sieur 
de Lally is faithfully and honestly to adhere to the capi- 
tulation. 

" The whole of what has been said before concerns only 
natives of England ; but as they have in their settlements 
merchants from all nations, such as Mooi*s, Armenians, 
Jews, Pattaners, &c., the Sieur de Lally is ordered to 
treat them with humanity, and endeavour by fair means 
to engage them to retire to Pondicherry, or any other of 
the Company's acquisitions, assuring them at the same 
time that they will be protected, and that the same liberty 
and privileges which they before possessed among tha 
English will be granted them. 

" Among the recruits furnished to complete the regl« 
ments of Lorrain and Berry, there are three hundred men 
from Fisher's corps, lately raised, and as it is feared there 
will be considerable desertions among these new recruits, 
the Sieur de Lally may, if he pleases, leave them on the 
Tsle de France, and replace them from the troops of that 
island."* 

Before leaving France, Lally had placed his son, 
Trephine Gerard, who had been born at Paris on the 
5th March, 1751, at the College of Harcourt, intending 
that he should ultimately follow the profession of arms. 

Though impetuous and at times apt to be somewhat 
overbearing, Lally was eminently fitted for command. 
He possessed secrecy, with a ready facility for quick and 
judicious decision. His talent was evinced by the manner 
in which he established magazines, extended his posts and 
defences, and made himself acquainted with the character 
and features of the country which was to be the scene of 
his future operations. His lofty demeanour, talent, tact, 

* The MS, original of these interesting instructions was presented 
to Charles Grant, Viscount de Vaux, by the directors of the EDglis]!i 
East India Company. 



8 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

aiid bravery inspired his troops with confidence and an 
assurance of conquest. If Lally was fond of glory, he was 
also fond of flattery ; and though a strict disciplinarian, 
he was somewhat too partial, perhaps, to levying contribu* 
tion on the conquered provinces; but while his enemies 
in after years averred that he was grasping, they never 
denied that he was lavish and liberal when the king's 
service required him by spies to obtain intelligence of the 
strength and designs of the enemy. 

The Count d'Ache, Chef d'Escadre, encountered such 
adverse winds that he was nearly twelve months on his 
voyage ; thus the Chevalier des Soupirs, having wearied 
of waiting at the Mauritius, sailed towards the coast of 
Hindostan, and reaching Pondicherry (or Fuducheri), dis- 
<jmbarked his troops. 

This town was the capital of the French settlements in 
India, being restored to them by the Dutch after the 
Treaty of Ryswick. It occupied a good position in the 
i'ich, fertile, and populous Carnatic, a country studded by 
an incredible number of forts and strongholds. Their 
erection was an indispensable necessity in a level district 
full of open towns, subject to the sudden attacks of hordes 
€>i native cavalry. The sovereigns of the Carnatic must 
have possessed at one period immense wealth and power, 
for the number and magnitude of their pagodas, and the 
indications that remain of ancient riches, grandeur, popu- 
lation, industry and art, impress the mind with wonder. 

At this crisis the funds and forces of the British in 
that part of India were so small, that they could scarcely 
bring one hundred soldiers into the field. Madras, one of 
their principal places, sixty-three miles distant, was an 
open town ; Fort St. David was in ruins, with a garrison 
©f only sixty invalids. A fortnight would have enabled 
the Chevalier, with his 2000 men, to reduce the whole 
coast of Coromandel ; but M. des Soupirs was quite un- 
skilled in the art of carrying on war in a country so new 
to him, and remained inactive, though the French had 
many losses to repair, having been recently driven from 
all their wealthy settlements in Bengal by the victorious 
£nglish< 



THE COUNT DE LALLT. 9 

Eight montlis after liis arrival, on the 25th April, 1 758, 
the Chef d'Escadre anchored in the roadstead before the 
sandy plain occupied by Pondicherry, and Lally disem- 
barking his troops and treasure, marched into the town, 
the governor of which, M. de Leyrit, received him with a 
salute of cannon. At the peace of Amiens, the French 
population of Pondicherry amounted to 25,000, exclusive 
of the blacks, who were treble that number. Its revenue 
was then 40,000 pagodas ; but it was a place destitute of 
natural advantages, its vicinity producing only palm-trees, 
millet, and a few herbs. 

Weary of his long voyage, and anxious to fulfil his 
orders, which comprehended the total destruction of every 
British fortification that fell into his power, the ardent 
and gallant Lally lost not an hour in preparing for active 
operations. Next day, the 26th, he returned on board to 
sail for Cudalore, and in one hour after a powerful British 
fleet assailed the ships of Count d'Ach6 in the roadstead, 
where a French 7 4 -gun ship was taken ; but the rest 
fought a passage to the seaward, and favoured by the wind, 
and by superior sailing, anchored off Cudalore, a town 
situated fifteen miles from Pondicherry, on the western 
shore of the Bay of Bengal. 

This little town, which occupies the banks of the Pen- 
nar, had been obtained by the English East India Com- 
pany from the Rajah of Gingee, so early as 1681, for the 
site of a factory, and had been fortified. Its garrison con- 
sisted only of ten invalids ; but being assisted by the in- 
habitants, these brave fellows made so stout a resistance, 
that Lally was occupied three days in taking it. From 
thence he marched to Fort St. David, a settlement on the 
Carnatic coast, obtained by the English from a Mahratta 
rajah in 1691, and besieging it, after being seventeen 
days in open trenches, exposed to the broiling sun by 
noon and the baleful dews by night, gained it by capitu- 
lation on the 2nd of June, and levelled all its fortifica- 
tions to the ground. 

On the 10th he marched back to Pondicherry, and 
having resolved to assail Madras, despatched an officer in 
& small vessel to his naval Chef d'Escadre, with instruc- 



10 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

tions to return and co-operate with him. But Admiral 
Pocock, who commanded the British squadron in those 
seas, had defeated M. d'Ach6 in two engagements, and by- 
driving him sixty miles to the windward, had nearly cut 
off all communication between him and the army. And 
now the governor of Pondicherrj announced that the 
town and its vicinity could not subsist Lally's 4000 
Frenchmen for more than fifteen days. On this he was 
compelled to march into the little kingdom of Tanjore 
(or Tanjowar), which lay one hundred and fifty miles 
southward, and there quarter his troops during the stormy 
and rainy season, while the naval squadron took refuge in 
port. The advance into Tanjowar was not made without 
a due pretence of wrong to adjust, for the rajah had re- 
fused to pay a government debt, which M. de Leyrit. 
assured Count Lally to be more than due. 

The discharge of five pieces of camion against his lilt.i: 
capital compelled the rajah to pay down treasure to the 
amount of 440,000 livres, and afibrd free-quarters to the 
French troops for two months, imtil tidings arrived that 
800 British were marching against Pondicherry ; upon 
which Lally immediately abandoned Tanjowar, and ad- 
vanced to tlie relief of the Chevalier des Soupirs, who 
with a slender force was timidly preparing to evacuate 
the capital of French India. 

On Lally approaching, on the 31st of August, the 
British detachment fell back on Madras, and now our 
indefatigable Irishman, full of the most sanguine hopes of 
expelling them from the vast peninsula of Hindostan, at 
once made new preparations for investing Fort St. George, 
their principal settlement on the coast of Coromandel ; 
but scarcity of money, and the improper conduct of the 
naval Chef d'Escadre, retarded the operations, frustrated 
the bold intentions of Lally, and ultimately betrayed them 
to the enemy. 

While sparing no exertions to officer and equip a body 
of sepoy infantry, he seized a Dutch ship, in which he 
found a sufficient quantity of specie to enable him to 
attack Madras ; he then sent a message to the Count 
d'Ach6 not to leave the coast ; but the count replied, 



THE COUJ^T DE LALLY. 11 

that he required a recruit of seamen, aud must return to 
France. Alarmed by such a threat, Lally ofiered him 
half of his soldiers for the marine service ; but deaf alike 
to threats and entreaties, the count sailed for the Straits 
of Madagascar on the 1st of September, and left Lally to 
cope single handed with the British forces. 

On summoning to his presence M. de Bussy, who com- 
manded the French troops in that extensive region named 
the Deccan (or Country of the South), and M. Moracin, 
who commanded at the seaport of Masulipatnam, he found 
these officers were somewhat influenced by the same pride 
and disobedience which characterized the conduct of Count 
d'Ach6 ; and thus, before they would obey, and march 
against Madras, they required that Lally should embody 
an additional thousand men. He immediately ordered 
M. Moracin to return to his post, which the British were 
approaching. M. Moracin dared to refuse or delay, and 
taken by surprise during his absence, Masulipatnam was 
lost to France for ever. 

In the month of October, Lally, with his slender force, 
the flower of which was the valiant Begiment de Lorraine, 
marched without opposition into the extensive district of 
Arcot (which seven years before had been overrun by 
Colonel Clive), and after remaining there at free-quarters 
for five days, n^arched back to Pondicherry. 

The army v/as now totally destitute of pay, and the 
commissariat had no supply but plimder, while the de- 
parture of the Count d'Ache cut off all succour or retreat 
by the seaward. Though numerous, the troubles of Lally 
were just commencing. Discouraged and disunited by 
the naval disasters of d'Ache, the French oflicers were 
alternately fired with ardour and depressed by despair. 
M. de Bussy offered to raise 400,000 livres in three hours, 
if he was permitted to re-enter the Deccan with a body 
of trooj)s ; but being loth to divide his little force, and 
believing the result to be incredible, Lally wisely declined. 
De Bussy then informed him that he had 240,000 livres 
'lelongiug to the East India Company, which were at his 
jervice if he would be responsible for them ; but Lally 
still more wisely declined to compromise his honour hf 



12 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

appropriating the money of the merchants to the service 
of the nation. He resumed his preparations for the siege 
of Madras while the British fleet was absent from its 
shore ; but this measure was vehemently opposed by the 
Governor of Pondicherry, M. Duval de Leyrit, who urged 
the wretched state of the commissariat and the empty 
military chest. Lally's Irish spirit could ill brook such 
disputations, and, " pay or no pay," he was for marching at 
once. 

However, he was compelled to take the opinion of the 
General Council of Pondicherry, some of whom adhered 
to De Leyrit ; but five, headed by M. le Comte d'Estaigne, 
offered their plate, to the value of 80,000 livres, towards 
the expense of the expedition. The true and generous 
Lally gave, from his private purse, 140,000 livres ; and 
having thus in some measure collected the sinews of war, 
with his small head-quarter force, 2700 French, and a 
body of sepoys, he advanced towards Madras early in 
December. 

A march of sixty-three miles brought Lally, on the 
12th day of the month, in sight of the town, which, by 
its strength, wealth, and annual revenue in calicos and 
tnuslins, was of such great consequence, even then, to 
the growing English East India Company. The diamond 
mines were only a week's journey distant, and the rumour 
of their priceless wealth, and splendid wonders, animated 
the French soldiers, as in three divisions they marched 
across the sunny plains of Choultry. 

Madras, or Fort St George, was divided into two parts ; 
one called tlie Black, and the other the White town. The 
former, Madraspatam, had been totally destroyed by the 
French in 1744, when they levelled to the ground every 
building that stood within three hundred yards of the 
fort. The walls of the latter, which rose above the centre 
of the English town wer<^ — as dispatches relate — all built 
of hard, iron-coloured stone- and defended by four gigantic 
bastions. The inner fort, or citadel, had a front of one 
hundred and eight yards ; the outer fort consisted of half- 
moons, curtain-walls, and flankers, which, like the rusty- 
coloured ramparts of the town were studded by an incre- 



THE COUNT DE LALLY. 13 

dible uumber of cannon. In short, the aspect of Madras, 
with its mansions covered by snow-white chunam, is 
delightful from the ocean, and magnificent from the land* 
On the latter, its walls are moated by a river, which falls 
into the sea on that flat and sandy shore, where a white 
and furious surf is ever rolling in mountains of foam. 

As he crossed the plains, Lally was briskly cannonaded 
by the field-pieces of the enemy, and lost many officers 
and men j but, advancing steadily, took possession of 
Ogmore and Meliapore (or San Thom^), an old town of 
the Portuguese, who had built there a large church 
above a giave reputed to be that of St. Thomas, who had 
been murdered by a tribe that dwelt in the vicinity, and 
whose right legs, after that sacrilegious act, were, ac- 
cording to Dr. Fryar, swollen to the size of those of 
elephants. 

Colonel Lawrence, a gallant and resolute officer, who 
commanded the garrison of Madras, was ably seconded by 
Pigot the governor, by Colonel Draper, Major Caillaud, 
and other gentlemen. Thus Lally encountered the most 
determined resistance. The garrison consisted of 5000 
men; of these, 1600 were regular troops of the British 
line, 300 were sepoys, and 400 were servants of the East 
India Company. Lawrence retired to the island in order 
to prevent the French from obtaining possession of the 
island bridge, and ordered all the posts to be occupied in 
the Black Town, which was triangularly shaped, and sur- 
rounded by a fortified wall. 

At daybreak, on the morning of the 14th December, 
Lally sent forward M. de Eillon at the head of his regi- 
ment, which assailed the Black Town with great spirit^ 
and after giving and receiving several severe discharges of 
musketry, during a contest of some hours, gained the 
place, driving back the British, who retired by detach- 
ments into the fort or citadel of Madras. This successful 
movement was followed by an advance of the Regiment 
de Lorraine, to keep the ground De Billon had won ; but 
within an hour, a grand sortie was made upon them by a 
body of British infantry, led by Colonel Draper, who 
behaved with great personal bravery. 



14 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

Sliioiuled in smoke, lie led a charge of bayonets against 
the Regiment de Lorraine ; a furious melee ensued, and 
the French must have been driven back, or cut off, had 
not Lally sent forward another detachment, with some 
sepoys, to sustain the troops of M. de Rillon. A great 
number of officers and men were shot or bayoneted on 
both sides ; but Colonel Draper was compelled to retreat, 
for his grenadiers gave way in a somewhat discreditable 
manner. After this, the garrison of Madras contented 
themselves by defending their works, being too weak to 
engage in sorties beyond them. 

Colonel, afterwards Sir William Draper, was that 
preux chevalier who afterwards conquered Manilla, and 
became a paramount judge in all matters of military 
etiquette, and who, in his celebrated letter to Juxius, ex- 
pressed a hope that he would never see officers pushed 
into the British army who had nothing to lose but their 
swords. 

Thus encouraged, by hemming in the enemy, Lally 
<;ontinued to push his approaches, and build batteries. 
Meanwhile M. de Lequille, another Chef d'Escadre, had 
arrived at the Isle de France, with four ships of war and 
three millions of livres, destined for the service of the 
French India Company. When about to leave the isle 
for the roads of Pondicherry, he unfortunately met the 
discomfited fleet of the Count d'Ache, who, being his 
superior officer, prevented him from proceeding, and re- 
moved the treasure on board his own ship, taking upon 
himself to send only one million of livres to the Count 
de Lally, in a small frigate, which reached Pondicheny 
on the 21st December, 1758. 

This supply enabled Lally to press the siege with 
greater vigour, and to pay his French soldiers and Indian 
levies a portion of their arrears ; but the blacks were of 
little service to him during the operations. M. Lally 
greeted several batteries against the Black Town and Fort 
St. George ; one of these, called the Grand Battery, was 
450 yards distance from the glacis. They opened on the 
8th January, 1759 ; after which they maintained a con- 
iinued discharge of shot and shells for twenty days, the 



THE COUNT DE LALLY. 15 

pioneers pushing on the trenches nntih their sap had 
reached the base of the glacis, within pistoi-shot of the 
parapets. Then Lally formed another and loftier battery, 
on which he i3laced four pieces of heavy cannon. It 
opened on the 31st of January ; but for five consecutive 
days the artillerists were compelled to close up their em- 
brasures with fascines and earth, for the superior fire of 
the fort was not to be withstood, and it soon compelled 
them to abandon their redoubt. Tlio Grand Battery, 
however, still continued a fire, which was so well directed, 
that it dismounted or broke twenty-six pieces of cannon 
and three mortars, beating down the wall and effecting a 
considerable breach. 

During these operations, Lally had somewhat needlessly 
bombarded the town, to terrify the inhabitants, and de- 
molished a number of their houses; but the precautions 
of Governor Pigot, the vigilance, valour, and experience 
of Colonels Draper, Lawrence, and Major Brereton re- 
pelled every attack ; and thus, after the 5th of February, 
the fire of Lally's batteries gradually diminished from 
twenty-three to six pieces of cannon. Money, powder, 
and shot became scarce together ; he had lost many of his 
bravest men ; two months had elapsed, and still the Bri- 
tish standard waved above the fort of Madras. During 
this period the remonstrances which Laliy sent frequently 
to France for succour, describe the deep anxiety he felt 
for the success of a cause in which his honour was impli' 
cated j and so keen and bitter did this feeling become, 
that at times, w^hen aggravated by an illness incident to 
the climate, his reports and dispatches are remaikable 
for contaiidng occasional sentences expressive of horror 
and distraction. 

His general chagrin at the conduct of Count d'Ache 
<and othei'S is strongly portrayed in the following letter, 
vhich he addressed from the trenches at Madras to the 
Governor of Pondicherry, and which had been inter- 
cepted : — ■ 

" M. Duval de Leyrit, — A good blow might be struck 
iiere ; there is in the roads a 20-gun ship laden with all 



16 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

the riches of Madras ; she -will remain there till the 20tlL 
The Expedition is just arrived, but M. Gerlin is not a man 
to attack her, for she made him run away once before. 
The Bristol, on the other hand, did but just make her 
appearance before San Thom6, and on the vague report of 
thirteen ships coming from Porto Nova, she took fright, 
and, after landing the provisions with which she was 
laden, she would not stay even long enough to take on 
board twelve of her own guns, which she had lent us for 
the siege (of Madras). 

" If I was to judge of the point of honour of the Com- 
pany's oflBcers, I would break him like glass, as well as 
some others of them, 

" The FideUj or the Haerlem, or even the aforesaid 
Bristol, with her twelve guns restored to her, would be 
sufficient to make themselves masters of the British ship, 
if they could get to windward of her in the night. Mau- 
gendre and Tremillier are said to be good men, and were 
they employed to transport 200 wounded we have here, 
their service would be of importance. We remain in the 
same position ; the breach made these fifteen days ; all 
the time within fifteen toises of the place, and never hold- 
ing up our heads to look at it. I believe we must, on 
our return to Pondicheriy, learn some other tradOy for this 
of war requires too much patience. 

" Of the 1500 sepoys who attended our army, I believe 
nearly 800 are employed upon the road to Pondicherry, 
laden with pepper, sugar, and other goods ; and as for the 
coolies, they have been employed for the same purpose 
since the first days we came here. I am taking my mea- 
sures from this day to set fire to the Black Town and to 
blow up the powder-mills. 

•'* You will never imagine that fifty French deserters 
and 100 Swiss are actually stopping the progress of 2000 
men of the king's and Company's troops, which are still 
here existing, notwithstanding the exaggerated accounts 
that every one makes, according to his own fancy, of the 
slaughter that has been made among them ; and you will 
be still more surprised if I tell you that, were it not for 
the combats and four battles we sustained, and for tbiS 



THE COUNT DE LALLY. 17 

batteries which failed, or (to speak more properly) which 
were unskilfully made, we should not have lost fifty men 
from the commencement of the siege to this day. I have 
written to M. de Larche, that if he persists in not coming 
here, let who will raise money upon the Poleagei'S for me, 
I will not do it ! And I renounce — as I informed you a 
month ago — meddling directly or indirectly with anything 
whatever that may relate to your administration, civil or 
military. For I would rather go and command the 
Caffres of Madagascar than remain in this Sodom, which 
the fire of the English must sooner or later destroy, if 
that from heaven should not I have the honour to be, 
&c., " Lally. 

" P.S. — I think it necessary to apprise you that, as M. 
des Soupirs has refused to take upon him the command of 
this army, which I have offered him, and which lie is em- 
powered to accept, by having received from the Court a 
duplicate of my commission, you must necessarily, with 
the council, take it upon you. For my part, I undertake 
only to bring it back either to Arcot or Sadraste. Send, 
therefore, your orders, or come yourselves to comm^vnd it, 
for I shall quit it upon my aiTival there. — L." 

Though his cannonade had been diminished to only six 
pieces, Lally had advanced his sap along the seashore by 
cutting a trench about ten feet broad, with traverses to 
cover the soldiers, until he embraced the whole north-east 
angle of the covered way, from whence the Regiment de 
Lorraine, by a we\l directed mousquetade, drove the 
besieged in disorder. An attempt to open a j^assage into 
the ditch by mining failed, for the mine was sprung 
without effect. 

Meanwhile Major Caillaud and Captain Preston, a 
Scottish officer, with a body of sepoys, another of Indian 
cavalry, and some European soldiers drawn from the 
British garrisons at Trinchinopoli and Chingalaput (which 
Clive when a captain had ti^kenfrom the French in 1752), 
hovered on the roads a few miles from Madras, blocking 
up the avenues, cutting ofi" succour and provisions from 
Pondicherry, thus compelling Lally four times (as his 

c 



18 TUE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

jetter states) to drive them back by detachments. The^o 
measures successfully retarded the siege until the 16th 
February, when, at the very time he was preparing for 9 
grand assault at point of the bayonet, his Britannic 
Majesty's ship Queensberry, commanded by Captain Kem- 
penfeldt, the Company's ship Revenge, and four other 
vessels, having on board 600 men of tlie 79th, or Colonel 
Draper's regiment, with a great sup])ly of provision of 
every kind, came to anchor in the roadstead, and the 
troops were immediately disembarked and marched into 
Madras. The rage and mortification of Lally were now 
complete ! 

He had encountered innumerable difficulties occasioned 
by the scarcity of money and munition, by the wretched 
supplies of the Government commissaries and contrac- 
tors, by the conduct of Count d'Ach6 and others, by 
the sinking of his soldiers' courage before the obstinate 
defence of the besieged; and now, with Kempenfeldt's 
arrival all hope of success vanished. After maintaining 
a smai-t cannonade uutil the night of the 1 6th closed over 
Madras, Lally abandoned his trenches, and was compelled 
by scarcity of horses to leave forty pieces of cannon 
behind him : he blew up the powder-mills of Ogmore 
and retreated into Arcot. 

Soon after this siege had been abandoned, the British 
received from home another reinforcement of 600 in- 
fantry, and on the 16th April the main body of their 
troops, which had been centred at MadiTis for its pro- 
tection, took the field in three divisions against Lally, 
Tinder the command of Major Brereton. The Chevalier 
des Soupirs felt the first brunt of this movement, being 
driven by the Major from Conjeveram, a large and hand- 
some town, principally inhabited by Brahmins, which lies 
forty-four miles from Madras, and had the chief manufacture 
of turbans and red handkerchiefs. Major Forde, with 
another division, took by assault the town of Masulipat- 
nam, the governor of which, M. Moracin, was still absent, 
as befoi e related. The garrison, which was commanded 
hy the Marquis de Con flans, had been weakened by the 
'rithdrawal of its soldiers to the siege of Madras. Thus 



THE COUNT DE LALLY. 19 

the commerce of Britain secured a sea-coast of at least 
eight hundred miles in length along a country teeming 
with wealth and commerce, while that of France waa 
almost confined to the narrow limits of Pondicherry. 
The third division of British under Colonel Clive was 
meanwhile advancing from the province of Bengal to 
assist the Rajah of Visanapore, who had driven the 
French out of Yizagapatara, and hoisted thereon the 
British flag. 

The first severe shock sustained by the arms of Britain 
in the East was given by the gallant Lally in person. 
Sensible of the importance of such a place as Conjeveram, 
which with the fort of Chingelpel, commanded all the 
adjacent country and secured the British conquests to 
the northward, he marched towards Major Brereton, 
and took up a strong position at Vandivash. There he 
cantoned his troops until the month of September, when 
Brereton, on receiving 300 men under Major Gordon, 
from Colonel Coote's Bengalese force, resolved on beating 
up the French in their quarters. Accordingly, on the 
14th March he advanced from Conjeveram, at the head 
of 400 European infantry, 7000 sepoys, seventy Euro- 
pean and 300 native horsemen, with fourteen pieces of 
artillery. 

After capturing the fort of Trivitar, he advanced 
against the village of Vandivash, where Lally, although 
still struggling with a severe illness, had formed a strong 
intrenched camp, the lines of which were protected by a 
redoubt commanded by a rajah, and mounted with 
twenty pieces of cannon worked by Indians, under the 
directions of a single French cannonier. 

At two on the morning of the 30th September the 
British attacked the village on three points, and on all 
witli equal fury and determination. The French infantry, 
1000 strong, made a spirited resistance; and the moment 
daylight broke, the guns of the rajah poured a storm of 
grape-shot upon the ranks of the enemy. 

Lally did all that ability and gallantry could inspire to 
animate his troops ; but being deserted by his black 
pioneers, who (like those of Brereton) fled at the moment 
c 2 



2i THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

t)f attack, the French were discouraged, and retired 
beyond a deep dry ditch, from whence the regiments ol 
Lally and Lorraine made a succession of desperate sallies 
on the British, until, seeing that the column of Anglo- 
Indian horse were watching for an opportunity to fall 
upon his flanks, Lally, to preserve his little force from 
utter niin, brought up his reserve to cover the retreat, 
and fell back, after the loss of many gallant chevaliers 
and 400 soldiers. Brereton and Gordon remained en- 
camped in sight of the fort for some days ; but the ap- 
proach of the rainy season compelled them to retire into 
■Conjeveram. 

The Fort of Yandivash was afterwards garrisoned by 
French and sepoys, while another column of King Louis's 
troops assembled in Arcot, under Brigadier-General the 
Marquis de Bussy, who endeavoured to levy as many 
sepoys as possible. These native troops, whose now fami- 
liar name is derived from Sepahe^ the Indian word for a 
feudatory chief or military tenant, have ever made excel- 
lent soldiers, having an inborn predilection for arms, 
The success at Vandivash, for giving the British even 8 
check was now deemed almost equal to a victory, made 
Lally conceive the idea of besieging Trinchinopoli ; but 
again the folly or the treachery of the naval Chei 
d'Escadre baffled his intentions. 

After having a third engagement with the British fleet 
on the 4th September, when with eleven ships of the 
line he was as usual defeated by Admiral Pocock with 
nine, the Count d'Ach^, on the 17th, reached the 
roads of Pondicherry, from whence he wrote to the 
Count de Lally, then in position before Vandivash, offer- 
ing to place at his disposal, for the king's service, 800,000 
livres in piastres and diamonds, being the plunder of s 
British ship which he had taken at sea, and which he 
begged the lieutenant-general to receive as part pay- 
ment of the two millions so improperly detained in the 
preceding year at the Isle of France. He concluded his 
dispatch by a notification that on the following day, the 
18th September, he would sail towards Madagascar. 

At this time, when British valour was bearing all 



THE COUNT DE LALLT. 21 

before it ; when the powerful fortress of Karical (which 
the King of Taiijowar had ceded to France in 1739) waa 
about to fall, and he lost, with all the fertile district around 
it; when the united fleets of Admirals Pocock, K.B., 
and Sir Samuel Cornish were sweeping along the shores 
of the Carnatic, reducing many places of minor impor- 
tance, and by their cannon everywhere beating down the 
Fleur-de-lys of France ; when Colonel Eyre Coote was 
pressing the French and their allies along the frontier of 
Bengal, and when the Prince of Vizanapore and other 
native rajahs were in open revolt against King Louis, — the 
announcement of the Chef d'Escadre filled the colonists 
with fear and confusion. Indignant and exasperated, 
Lally would have left the camp and sought Count d'Ache 
in person ; but at that crisis, being so reduced by sickness 
that he could not quit his bed, he sent a deputation of 
field officers to represent the necessity of his remaining 
in the immediate vicinity of the Carnatic coast ; of his 
CO operating with the land forces, and conjuring him by 
all means to suspend the execution of a design so preg- 
nant with disaster to the Indian interests of his Most 
Christian Majesty. But nothing that these officers could 
urge, or their united eloquence suggest, would avert the 
fatal purpose of the Count d'Ache, who put to sea, and 
once more left the disheartened soldiers of King Louis to 
their fate. 

Immediately upon this Lally assembled the Council 
and drew up a solemn protest against the unaccountable 
conduct and sudden departure of the Chef d'Escadre and 
his fleet, proclaiming that he — and he alone — would be 
responsible if Pondicherry, the capital of French India, 
with all its territory fell into the hands of the British 
army and revolted rajahs. The " protest" was dated on 
the 17th of September, 1759, and was unanimously signed 
in the Hall of Fort Lewis, at Pondicherry, by Lally 
himself and the following gentlemen : — 

" Duval de Leyrit, Renaut, Barthelmy, Chevalier des 
Soupirs, Michael Lally, Bussy, Du Bois, Carriere, Verdieres, 
Dure, Gaddeville, Du Passage, Beausset, Benaut, De la 
Salle, Guillart, Porcher, PIre Dominique, Capucin Fretrt 



J2 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUKfi. 

iU la Faroisse de Noire Daine des Anges, F. S. Lavacier, 
Superieur General des Jesuites Franqais dans les Indes, L. 
Eathon, Super ieur General des Missions Ftrangeres, Poitier 
de Lorme, Duchatel, Audouart, Aimar, Combaut dAu- 
Ihenil, Goupil, Keisses, J. C. Bon, De Wilst, Banal, 
Hauly, Termelin, Sainte Paul, J. B. Launaj, Deshayes, 
Fischer, Du Laurent, Audager du Petit Val, D'Arcy, 
Medin, Dior6, Bertrand, Legris, Miran, Bourville, F. 
Nicolas, Du Plan, De Laval, Boree, D. TArch^, Bay- 
elleon de Guillette." 

The count had already sailed j but strong currents and 
adverse winds, however, met his fleet, which was driven 
hr to the north ; thus the protest of Lally overtook him 
at sea. Influenced by its tenor, he returned to Pondi- 
cherry, and after remaining one week in the roadstead, 
again departed for his favourite island of Madagascar, 
and for sixteen months Lally and his soldiers heard no 
more of him. 

The Governor and Council of the British India Com- 
pany at Madras having heard that Lally had sent a 
detachment of his forces southward and threatened Trin- 
chinopoli, determined that Colonel Eyre Coote, who had 
recently arrived in the East, should take the fi*>Vl and 
drive it back. 

The French officers had been fortunate in acquiring 
the favour of many of the Indian chiefs. Thus in 1755 
the King of Travancore employed M. de Launay to disci« 
pline 10,000 Naires of Malabar in the mode of the Eu^ 
ropean infantry ; and thus M. de Lally, who had won the 
alliance of Salubetzingue, sovereign of the whole country, 
expected the arrival of his brother Bassuletzingue with 
a column of 12,000 Indians. When more than a hundred 
miles distant from the French army, the prince sent a 
Bissaldar to request that an officer of rank with a bodv 
of French should be sent to facilitate their junction. 
Lally immediately despatched the Marquis de Bussy on 
this service, with a detachirent which joined the prince 
beneath the walls of Arcot. In twelve days all that was 
necessary might have been done ; but the loitering mar- 
quis spun out the time to no less than two-and-forty. 



THE COUNT DE LALLY. 2S 

While Lally was totally unable to account for his absence, 
& dangerous ferment arose in the camp of Prince Bas- 
guletzingue, there being no pay for his soldiers, as M. 
d'Ache s diamonds were yet unsold ; and during the 
delay the British troops under Colonel Coote (aware that 
Lally could not begin a campaign without cavalry) sud- 
denly made themselves masters of Vandivash on tha 
30th November, after having breached the walls. Thuai, 
l^y the indolence of M. de Bussy one of the most impor- 
tant fortresses on the coast was lost, and its garrison of 
000 men taken, with forty-nine pieces of cannon and a 
vast quantity of ammunition. 

On the 10th December they took Cosangoli, which 
was bravely defended by a mixed garrison of French and 
sepoys under Colonel O'Kennely, an Irish officer ; who, 
after his guns were dismounted, capitulated and marched 
out with all the honours of war. With 100 Frenchmen 
he joined Lally, but 500 of his sepoys were disarmed and 
dismissed by Coote. 

The double and dangerous success of this vigilant and 
enterprising officer compelled Lally to attempt a decisive 
demonstration for the recapture of Vandivash ; but Coote, 
who had completely superseded Brereton in the command, 
was an officer who ably defended the conquests his bra- 
very had made. 

Having now somewhat recovered his health and 
strength, on the 10th January, 1760, the Lieutenant- 
General du E-oi marched towards the captured fortress 
at the head of 2200 Frenchmen, and about 10,000 native 
troops. Among the latter were 1800 blacks called the 
Begiment de Bussy, 300 Caffres, and 2000 cavalry ob- 
tained from a Mahratta chief, with whom Lally had 
concluded a treaty, as soon as he found himself disap- 
pointed by Prince Eassuletzingue. They were all clothed 
and armed after the picturesque fashion of their nativa 
country (wliich extends across the whole peninsula of 
Hindostan) and were led by a Ptissaldar, or commander 
of independent horse. He had twenty-five pieces of 
cannon with him. 

He came in sight of the British on the banks of th» 



24 THE CAVALIERS OF FOliTUNE. 

PoHar, a broad and sandy river, the bed of which was 
quite dry ; though in the middle of October, when the 
winter usually commences, and the rain descends in tor- 
rents, the river is sometimes half-a-mile broad, and flows 
towards the ocean with the greatest fury. There the 
adverse hosts hovered in sight of each other, until after 
succeeding in destroying some magazines which were in 
Colonel Coote's rear (the loss of which prevented his 
troops from acting in the field for some days after), Lally 
with his 12,000 men suddenly invested Vandivash, 
against which his batteries opened with such efi'ect, that 
a broad and practicable breach was soon made in the 
outer bastion, and now it was hoped that by one bold 
assault the captured fortress would be re- won, and with it 
the entire disputed territory. 

But at the very time when Lally was about to lead on 
the assault, Coote with 1700 European and 3000 black 
troops, fourteen pieces of cannon, and one howitzer, came 
suddenly upon his rear to relieve the garrison. 

Exposed to the cannon of the fort on one side, and to 
the troops of Coote on the other, Lally found himself 
critically situated ; but, turning like a lion at bay, he 
di'ew off from his trenches, and rapidly formed in order 
of battle to face this new enemy, on the 21st of January. 

Both arnjies were in high spirits and eager to engage. 

About nine in the morning they were two miles apart. 
Coote having advanced with his cavalry and j&vc compa- 
wies of sepoys, Lally sent forward his Mahratta horse to 
meet them ; but these, on being galled by two pieces of 
cannon, retired with precipitation. During this the 
colonel had succeeded in completely reconnoitring the 
position of Count Lally, whose forces were ably and 
judiciously placed, till the British made a movement to 
the right, which obliged him to alter and extend his left 
flank. 

While the lines were three-quarters of a mile apart 
the cannonading began on both sides, and was continued 
with dc^iidly precision and effect until noon, when Lally 
sent forward a small party of his European cavalry to 
chai'ge the British left. A few companies of sepoys and 



THE COUNT DE LALLY. 25 

two guus sent forward by Coote soon drove these in rear 
of their own army, and as the forces still continued 
approacliing, by one o'clock the roar of musketry became 
general along both lines from flank to flank, and that 
broad plain on which a cloudless sun was shining became 
shrouded in snow-white smoke. 

Undaunted by the cowardice of his cavalry, the hot* 
blooded Lally now threw himself into the line of his 
infantry, and at the head of the Regiment of Lorraine 
fell impetuously upon the British. Colonel Coote was on 
foot and at the head of his own regiment to receive 
them. 

After giving and receiving two discharges of musketry, 
the Regiment de Lorraine rushed on with a fury that 
threatened to sweep all before it. Lally was in front, 
sword in hand ; the bayonets crossed — the British line 
ivas broken ; but though a momentary confusion followed, 
it was not driven back. A series of bloody single com- 
bats ensued, with the charged bayonet and clubbed 
musket ; but these were of brief duration ; for in three 
minutes the Regiment of Lorraine was broken in turn, 
routed, and driven back in headlong confusion, over a 
field strewed with their own killed and wounded. The ex- 
plosion of a tumbril in rear of the French line created 
an additional confusion, of which Coote lost not a mo- 
ment in taking advantage. 

He ordered Major Brereton to advance with the regi- 
ment of Colonel Draper (who had returned to Europe for 
the benefit of his health), and by wheeling to the right to 
fall on the French left, and seize a fortified post which 
they were on the point of abandoning. 

This service was performed with the utmost bravery ; 
the French left was routed and driven pell-mell upon 
their centre. Draper's regiment was the 79th, not the 
present Cameron Highlanders, but a corps which was dis- 
banded in 1763. All had now become confusion among 
the enemy, but the gallant and accomplished Brereto» 
fell mortally wounded. 

" Follow — follow !" he exclaimed to some soldiers whe 
loitered near him ; " follow and leave me to my fate !** 



36 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

He soon expired ; led by Major Monsoon, the regiment 
advanced impetuously on, and after a vain and des- 
perate attempt, made by the Chevalier de Biissy, with 
Lally's regiment, to repel it, the French and their 
allies were completely routed in every direction by two 
o'clock in the afternoon. The Eegiment de Lally was. 
almost cut to pieces ; the horse of Brigadier- General M. 
de Bussy was shot under him, and he was taken prisoner 
by Major Monsoon, to whom he surrendered his sword. 

Lally having brought up his fugitive cava-lry, formed 
them in rear of his infantry, and enabled these to make 
a secure though precipitate retreat, leaving on the field 
a thousand men killed and wounded, with fifty prisoners, 
including the Marquis de Bussy, Quartermaster-General 
le Chevalier de Gadville, Lieutenant-Colonel Murphy, 
three captains, five lieutenants, many other officers, and 
twenty-two pieces of cannon. 

Coote lost 260 killed and wounded. Among the former 
was the gallant Brereton. Marechal Charles Grant, 
Vicomte de Vaux, affirms that the losses were equal on 
both sides. 

Covering the foot by the cavalry, Lally conducted his 
routed forces with considerable skill and good order to 
Pondicherry, while Coote lost not a moment in pursuing 
the advantage he had gained. Dispatching the Baron 
Vasserot towards that place with 1000 horse and 300 
sepoys, and with orders to ravage and lay waste all the 
French territory in and around it, he advanced in person 
against Chittipett, a small town and fort in the Carnatic, 
which, after a defence of two days, was surrendered on 
the 29th January, 1760, by the Chevalier de Tillie, who 
with his garrison remained prisoners of war. 

On the 2nd February he reduced the fort of Tim- 
mary on the Coromandel coast, and pushing on to Arcot, 
the capital, opened his batteries and dug his approaches 
within sixty yards of the glacis. The garrison, wliicli 
consisted of 250 French with 300 sepoys, defended the 
place until the 10 th, when they surrendered as prisoneit 
of war, delivering up twenty-two pieces of cannon and a 
large store of warlike munition. 



THE COUKT DE LALLY. 27 

Thus the campaign ended gloriously for Britain by the 
conquest of Argot, and by hemming up the indefatigable 
but most unfortunate Lally in the fortifications of Pon- 
dicheny, the capital of French India, which was soou 
fated to become the last scene of his valour and achieve- 
ment 

Surat, a place of great consequence on the coast of 
Malabar, was taken by a Bombay detachment, which 
destroyed the French factory. The English had obtained 
a settlement there from King Jehan Jeer in the year 
1020 of the Hijerah. By sea the operations had been 
carried on with equal vigour. On the 4th September, 
1759, an engagement had taken place between the fleets 
of Count d'Ache and Admiral Pocock, who obliged the 
former to sheer off with great loss. In April, the fortress 
of Karical had fallen, and by that time Admirals Pocock 
and Cornish had united their fleets in the roads of Pon- 
dicherry, within the gates of which nearly all that re- 
mained of the French forces in India were shut up, or 
encamped four leagues in front of it, under the command 
of the Count de Lally, barring the way by which he knew 
the British would march to an attack. 

In Karical 174 pieces of cannon were taken, and to 
add to the disasters of the French, one of their 64-guu 
ships (the Haerlem) was burned in the roads of Pondi- 
cherry by the British cruisers. 

Encouraged by his long career of success, and by the 
pecuniary and political embarrassments of his enemy, 
Colonel Coote resolved on investing Pondicherry. The 
approach of the rainy season, together with the well- 
known reputation for skill, bravery, and resolution enjoyed 
by the general of the now almost ruined French India 
Company, caused a regular siege to be considered imprac- 
ticable ; " it was therefore determined," says the Sieur 
Charles Grant, "to block up the place by sea and 
land." 

Lally had only 1500 Frenchmen with him ; these were 
the remnants of nine difterent corps of the King's and 
India Company's Service ; the cavalry, artillery, and 
invalidi^ of the latter ; the Creole volunteers of the Isle de 



2S THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

Bourbon ; the king's artillery ; the Regiments of Lally, 
Lorraine, Mazinis, and the battalion of India. 

The British armaments on the coast were now much 
more considerable. On the land were four battalions of 
the line, and by sea were seventeen sail of the line, carry- 
ing 1038 pieces of cannon, the smallest being three 50-gun 
ships. 

As the fortress of Pondicherry was as impregnable as 
nature and art could make it, Coote was perfectly aware 
that it could only be reduced by the most severe famine. 
It was also his opinion that with such an antagonist as 
Arthur Lally, a formal siege with regular approaches 
woiild prove perfectly futile with any force he could 
assemble ; for, in addition to his French comrades, Lally 
had a strong force of armed sepoys, and a vast store of 
warlike munition, including nearly 700 pieces of cannon, 
and many millions of ball cartridges, all made up for 
service. The ramparts bore 508 pieces (independent of 
mortars), the walls were five miles in circumference, and 
had a deep broad moat before them. There were six gates 
and thirteen bastions. The cavalry of the French India 
Company openly deserted in great numbers, and were 
received with rewards by Colonel Coote. This exas- 
perated Lally so much, that he erected gibbets all round 
Pondicherry in order to deter others from leaving the 
town or the lines before it. 

To victual the place completely for the inhabitants and 
his garrison was the first care of Lally ; for the town was 
large, and possessed an overplus of population, which 
gave him infinite cause for trouble and anxiety. 

Pondicheriy was surrounded by a number of forts, the 
defence of which, in all former sieges, had occasioned the 
inhabitants the utmost difficulty ; but these were rapidly 
reduced, as all the adjacent country was in the hands of 
the British. The fleet of Sir Samuel Coinish came to 
anchor on the 17th March, and while Co-jte approached 
nearer by land, Lally, in order to retard him, retired from 
position to position, bravely disputing every inch of 
ground, until, in front of Pondicherry, he formed his 
famous lines, which he defended for three months with 
admirable skill and valour, thereby gaining sufficient 



TifE COUNT DE LALLY. 29 

time to have vicbualled the town for the half of a year. 
While thus holding the foe in check, he concluded a 
treaty with the Rajah of Mysore, who pledged him- 
self to supply Pondicherry with provisions ; but failed 
to perform his promise, and departed with his people. A 
short time afterwards, Lally resolved to attempt a sortie, 
and on the night of the 2nd September, 1760, he made a 
furious attack on Coote's advanced posts, but was repulse"! 
with great loss, and had seventeen pieces of cannon taken. 
Coote lost but a few privates 

The last of the fortified boundary, or chain of redoubts, 
was carried by storm on the 10th September; the French 
were driven in, and Coote had forty killed and seventy 
wounded ; Major Monsoon had one of his legs torn off by 
a cannon-shot. 

A body of Scottish Highlanders, who had just been 
landed from the Sandimch East Indiaman, behaved with 
their accustomed valour in this affair. Passing Draper's 
grenadiers in their eagerness to get at the enemy, they 
threw down their muskets, and with their bonnets in one 
hand, and their claymores in the other, hewed a passage 
through a jungle hedge, fell with a wild cheer upon ths 
soldiers of Lally, and cut a whole company to pieces. 
Only five Highlanders and two grenadiers were shot. 
The Highlanders were fifty in number, and were com- 
manded by a Captain Momson. They belonged to the 
89th Highland Regiment, which had been raised among 
the Gordon clan in the preceding year. 

After that night, the operations of Lally were confined 
to the walls of Pondicherry. 

Of the guns taken by the Highlanders, seven were 
found to be 18-pounders, loaded to the muzzle with square 
bars ot iron six inches long, jagged pieces of metal, stones 
and ^lottles. They were on Lally's strongest battery, 
which was formed before a thick wood, one mile in front 
of Pondicherry, which could no longer have any succour 
from the seaward, as the Chef d'Escadre had sailed for 
Brest, where he arrived in April, 1761. Thus a 54.- gun 
ship, a 3 6 -gun frigate, and four Indiamen were left 
behind, and hopelessly shut up in the roadstead. 

In the month of October, Admiral Stevens, who had 



30 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNfc. 

relieved Admiral Cornish, sailed with his porlion of the 
fleet for Triiicomalee to refit, leaving five sail of the line, 
under Captain Haldane, to blockade Pondicherry, while 
Colonel Coote pressed on the investment by land. By 
their dispositions and vigilance, the dense population 
became distressed for provisions even before a siege was 
formally begun, and while the incessant rains rendered a 
closer conflict impracticable. The blockade w\^s supported 
by a number of batteries judiciously posted ; by these the 
garrison was harassed on one hand, while their supplies were 
cut ofi" on the other ; and these posts were gradually 
pushed nearer and nearer to the town, notwithstanding 
the deluge of rain, which had swollen the broad currents 
of the Chonenbar and the Gingi, two rivers that unitf 
near it, and roll their tides together to the sea. 

On the 26th November, the rains abated, and Colonel 
Coote directed his engineei*s to erect batteries in other 
places ; from whence, without being exposed, they could 
enfilade the works of the garrison, which was strictly 
closed in, and by the failure of the Mysorean rajah to 
fulfil his promise, was now enduring the utmost privations 
from scarcity of food. Lally was compelled to turn out 
of the town a vast multitude of native women and chil- 
dren ; but Coote drove them back again, and, as the 
batteries were firing at the time, a great number of these 
poor wretches were slain or severely wounded. 

During these operations. Captain Sir Charles Chalmere 
of Cults, a gallant Scottish baronet who served in Coote's 
artillery, died of fatigue. He possessed only the honours 
of his family, their estates having been forfeited for 
adherence to the house of Stuart about fifteen years 
before. 

On the night of the 7th October, the armed boats of 
the British fleet were pulled with muffled oars into the 
harbour, and two ships were cut out, under the very 
muzzles of Lally's cannon ; but not before he had killed 
and wounded thirty ofiicers and men. The prizes were 
the Balcine and Hermione, a frigate and a valuable India- 
man. In this afiair Lieutenant Owen, of H. B. M. shi* 
Sunderlandj lost an arm. 



THE COUNT DE LALLT. 31 

To encourage the British, the Nabob of Arcot promised 
to divide among them fifty lacs of rupees on the day- 
Pondioherry should surrender, and, as each lac was valued 
at 12,600^. sterling, the greatest enthusiasm prevailed 
among the officers, soldiers, and seamen : moreover, as all 
the French colonists who fled from other places had 
stored up their effects in Pondicherry, the treasure there 
was reputed to be enormous. 

On the 26th September, Coote's forces had been mus- 
tered at 3500 English and Scottish Highlanders, with 
7000 sepoys, all of whom were strongly intrenched, liaving 
taken Arcupong, Villa Nova, and every French outpost, 
while fifteen sail of the line and three frigates swept the 
ocean to the seaward, cutting of all succour ; indeed, none 
was ever afforded to the unfortunate Lally save by the 
Dutch settlers, who sent two unpretending boats ; but 
even these were observed, and on being seized were found 
to contain 20,000?. in cash and many valuable stores. 
Every day provisions were becoming more and more 
scarce, and notwithstanding the weakness of his garrison, 
Lally was compelled to select 200 French and 300 black 
soldiers, whom he contrived to despatch towards Gingi 
for succour ; but they were all cut off, and thus he found 
himself worse than before. 

The scarcity increased, and now gaunt starvation and 
death met the eye on every hand ; a thousanvl scenes of 
horror and distress occurred daily within the walls of 
Pondicherry. The soldiers of Lally and the citizens were 
compelled to eat the flesh of elephants, camels, and troop- 
hoi'ses ; after which dogs, cats, and even rats were de- 
voured. The count was frequently implored to surrender, 
but having now become sullen, revengeful, and determined, 
his lofty pride made him resolve to perish among tliP 
ruins of the French Indian capital, but never capitulate. 

Twenty-four rupees were given for a small dog, and in 
some instances as many half-crowns. 

On the 5th November, Lally dispatched a 54-gun ship. 
La Compagnie des Indes, to Trincomalee, a Danish settle- 
ment, for provisions ; but after eluding the watchful block- 
ading fleet, she was takea at sea- by IL M, ships Medway. 



32 THE CAVALIKRS OP FORTUNE. 

and Newcastle, and with her loss all hopes of succour 
died away. 

On the 9th November, Colonel Coote erected a Hcochet 
battery for four pieces of cannon, at 1400 yards from the 
glacis (for the information of unmilitary readers, we may 
mention that ricochet f/ring means when cannon or mor- 
tars are loaded with small charges, elevated from five to 
twelve degrees, so that when discharged from the parapet, 
the shot may roll along the opposite rampart) ; this was 
more with a view to harass the French than damage 
their works ; but meanwhile four other batteries were 
erecting in different places to rake and batter them. 

One for four guns, called the Prince of Wales Battery, 
was formed near the sea-beach, on the north, to enfilade 
the great street which intersects the White Town. 

A second, for four guns and two mortars, was formed 
to enfilade tlie counterguard, before the north-west bastion, 
at a thousand yards' distance, and in honour of the 
'' Butcher of Culloden," was called the Duke of Cumber- 
land's Battery. 

A third, called Prince Edward's, for two guns, faced 
the southern works at 1200 yards' distance, to enfilade the 
streets from south to north, and cross the fire of the 
northern battery. 

A fourth, on the south-west, at 1100 yards* distance, 
and called Prince William's Battery, was mounted with 
two guns and one mortar, to destroy the cannon on the 
redoubt of San Thoml. 

Lally beheld all these preparations with calmness, and 
by inspiring his soldiers with something of his own fierce 
ardour, laboured to retard the work of the besiegers, 
whose batteries commenced a simultaneous fire at mid- 
night on the 8th December. Lally's cannonicrs replied 
with the utmost vigour ; they slew a master gunner, a 
Bubahdar of sepoys, and wounded a great many more. 

On the 1st of January, a violent tempest of wind, accom- 
panied by torrents of rain, had almost ruined the works 
of Coote, and blown the fleet off the coast. The French 
became elated by the delay this occasioned, and the conse- 
quent prospect of relief; but the sudden reappearance of 



THE COUNT DE LALLY. 33 

Admiral Stcveus witli his vessels caused their hopes to 
fade away ; and ODce more this little baud of starving and 
desperate men betook them to their muskets and lintstocks ; 
for, still pressing on, Coote, on the 29th, formed a fifth 
battery, called the Hanover, at only 450 yards' distance, 
for ten cannon and three mortars, which opened a fire of 
shot and shell against the counter-guard and curtain. 

At last, being driven frantic by their sufferings, the 
soldiers and citizens demanded that the place should be 
surrendered. Lally was immovable, but yet feeling 
keenly for wdiat they endured, dissatisfied with the state 
of the French Indian affairs, and greatly exasperated by 
the disorderly conduct of his troojDS, and the baseness of 
their commissaries, he frequently burst into passionate 
exclamations which showed the keenness of his ao-ita- 

o 

tiou. 

'• Hell has spewed me into this country of wickedness,'* 
he said on one occasion, " and like Jonas I wait until tht 
^yhale shall receive me into its belly !" 

" I will go among the Caffi'es, rather than remain 
longer in this Sodom," he exclaimed on another occa- 
sion. 

But, nevertheless, he still defended the town like a 
good soldier, and on the disappearance of the British fleet 
during the storm, wrote the following letter to M. de 
Baymond, the Besident at Bullicot : — 

" M. Baymond, the English squadron is no more ! Out 
of twelve ships they had in our roads seven are lost, 
crews and all ; four otliers are dismasted, and it appears 
that only one frigate has escaped, therefore lose not an 
instant to send us chelingoes upon chelingoes loaded 
with rice. The Dutch have nothing to fear now ; besides 
— according to the law of nations — they are only to send 
us no provisions themselves, and we are no longer blocked 
up by sea. 

" The saving of Pondicherry has once already been in 
your power. If you miss the present, it wdll be entirely 
your own fault. Don't forget some small chelingoes — 
offer great rewards. I expect 17,000 Mahrattas in four 

D 



34 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

ilays ; in short, risk all ! attempt ! force all ! but send us 
some rice, should it be but a half garse at a time. 

" Lally. 
" Pondicherry, 2nd January, 1761." 

The British fleet suffered considerably ; many vessels 
«vhich had to cut their cables, were totally dismasted, and 
the Queensherry, Newcastle, and Protector were driven on 
shore ; while Le Due d'Acquitaine of sixty-four guns 
(French prize), commanded by Sir William Hewitt, Bart., 
and the Sunderland of sixty guns, commanded by the 
Hon. James Colville, both foundered, and all on board 
perished. Captain Colville was the son of Lord Colville, 
of Culross, a Scottish peer, who died on the Carthagena 
expedition in 1740, and brother of Alexander Lord Col- 
ville, who in 1764 was Commodore in North America. 

On the reappearance of Admiral Cornish with more 
of the fleet, the hope of the French sank again, and 
Lally, enraged at what he considered the mutinous repin- 
ing of his soldiers, met their remonstrances with turbu- 
lence and contempt, and by an unwise, and perhaps over- 
strained exercise of authority, at this fatal and desperate 
crisis, most unfortunately contrived to render himself 
unpopular with the Governor, the Council, and the proud 
chevaliers of old France, who officered his little band of 
troops. 

Still, however, the siege was pressed, and still the 
defence went on. 

On the 5th January, Coote attacked the redoubt of 
San Thom6, sword in hand, at the head of a body of 
Scottish Highlanders and English grenadiers, and won 
it, thus silencing four 28-pounders ; but two days after- 
wards, Lally retook it by 300 grenadiers, from the sepoys 
who were left in charge of it. 

On the 13th Coote sent 700 Europeans, 400 Lascars, 
and a company of pioneers under a major, to erect 
another battery of eleven guns and three mortars. Under 
the clear splendour of an Oriental moon, these works were 
carried on within 500 yards of the walls ; and this Batterie 
Royale was permitted to be erected without molestation, 



THE COUNT DE LALLT. 35 

for in their sullen despair the garrison never fired a shot 
at it. On the 14th the Hanover Battery ruined the 
north-west bastion, and on the following day the Batterie 
Royale beat down the ravelin at the Madras gate ; thus 
by the 15th of January a great and practicable breach 
was efiected, and the cannon of the gallant Lallv were 
silenced or dismounted. 

In the evening a parley was beat, and four envoys came 
from the ruined walls towards the British trenches. 
These were Colonel Dur6 (Durie ?) of the French Royal 
Artillery, Father Lavacer, Superior of the Jesuits, and 
two civilians. These were unprovided by " any authority 
from the Governor," says Vicomte de Yaux ; but Colonel 
Coote, in his dispatch to Mr. Pitt, affirms that they came 
direct from Lally with proposals for delivering up the 
garrison. In the town, at that moment, there were only 
three days provisions of the wretched kind described ; 
thus the extremity of famine would admit of no hesita- 
tion. Rendered ungovernable by what they had endured, 
Lally's officers declared the defence to be frantic obstinacy, 
and murmuring aloud, also averred that illness, pride^ 
and the climate had disordered his imagination j and that 
it was criminal rather than valiant to defend an unte 
liable fortress. 

The following were the proposals of Lally, presented 
by Colonel Dure to Colonel Coote : — 

" The troops of the king and Company, by want of 
provisions, will surrender themselves prisoners of war to 
his Britannic Majesty, on terms of the cartel, which I 
claim equally for all the inhabitants of Pondicherry, as 
well as for the exercise of the Roman religion, the 
religious houses, hospitals, chaplains, surgeons, Serjeants, 
reserving and referring myself to the decision of our two 
Courts, in proportion to the violation of a treaty so 
solemn. (He refers to the treacherous capture of Chan- 
dernagore.) 

" Accordingly M. Coote may take possession of the 
Villenour Gate at eight o'clock to-morrow morning ; and 
after to-morrow, at the same hour, that of Fort St. Lewi* 
Ji2, 



S6 THE cavaltt:rs of fortune. 

" I demand, merely from a principle of justice and 
humanity, that the mother and sisters of Kaza Sahib may 
be permitted to seek an asylum where they please, or 
that they remain prisoners among the English, and not 
be delivered into the hands of Mohammed A li Khan, which 
are still red with the blood of the husband and father, 
■which he has spilt, to the shame of those who gave them 
up to him ; but not less to the shame of the commander 
of the English army, who should not have allowed such 
a piece of barbarity to be committed in liis camp, 

'• As I am tied up by the caii;el, in the declaration 
which I make to M. Coote, I consent that the Council of 
Pondicherry may make their own representations to him 
with regard to what may concern their own private 
interests as well as the interests of the inhabitants of the 
colony. 

" Done at Fort Lewis, Pondicherry, 15th day of 
January, 1761. Lally." 

To these the Colonel replied biiefly by stating that the 
capture of Chandemagore v.^as teyond his cognizance, 
and had no relation to Pondicheriy ; that he merely 
required the soldiers of its garrison to yield as prisoners 
of war, promising that they should be treated with every 
honoiir and humanity; that he would send the grenadiers 
of his own regiment to receive possession of the Villenour 
Gate, and that of Fort St. Lewis ; and that according to 
the kind and humane request of M. Lally, the mothei 
and sisters of Raza Sahib should be escorted to Ilkladras, 
and on no account be permitted to fall into the hands of 
their enemy, the Nabob Mohammed Ali Khan. 

To eight articles proposed by Father Lavacer, Superior 
of the Jesuits, requiring that the inhabitants should be 
treated in every respect like subjects of his Britannic 
Majesty ; that they should have full liberty to exercise 
the Catholic religion ; that the churches should be re- 
spected ; that all public papers should be sent to France ; 
and that forty-one soldiers of the Volunteers of Bourbon 
should be permitted to return to their homes — Colonel 
Coote declined to make any reply. 



THE COUNT DE LALLY. 37 

At eiglit o'clock on the morning of tbe IGtli July, 
Lally with a bitter heart ordered the standard of France 
to he hauled down on Fort St. Lewis, and at that hour 
Coote's grenadiers received the Yillenour Gate from the 
Eegiment de Lally, while those of the 79th Regiment 
took possession of the citadel.* Thus fell Pondicherry 
after a blockade and siege which Lally's skill and valour 
liad protracted under a thousand difficulties for the long 
period of eight months, against forces treble in number to 
those he commanded. 

Notwithstanding his fallen condition and the severe 
effects of a long illness, aggravated by the sultry climate, 
by bodily sufferings and anxiety, Lally marched out of the 
citadel with the air of a conqueror. " He is now as proud 
and haughty as ever," says an officer (who beheld him) in 
a letter to a periodical of the time ; " but his great share 
of wit, sense, and martial ability are obscured by a savage 
ferocit}^, and an undisguised contempt for every person 
below^ the rank of general." This writer was ignorant of 
the high qualities of Lally, and the difficulties with which 
he had contended, or he would never have written thus. 

According to the " exact state of the troops of his most 
Christian Majesty, under the command of Lieutenant- 
General Arthur Count de Lolly, when he surrendered at 
discretion on the ]6th of January, 1761," he marched out 
with the following — a miserable and famished band, 
hollow-eyed and gaunt — the few survivors of the Indian 
war : — 

Artillery of Louis XV., officers and men . 83 
The Regiment de Lorraine, ditto . . . 327 
The Regiment de Lallv, ditto (of the Irish 

Brigade) . . . . " 230 

The Regiment of the Marine, ditto ... 295 

* The 79th, or Draper's Eegiment, lost in this siege, and encounters 
before it, thirty -four officers, whose names were inscribed on a beau- 
tiful cenotaph, erected on Clifton Downs by Colonel Sir W. Drapes 
and which he dedicated as, 

** Sacred to the Memory of those departed Wamors, 
Of the Seventy- ninth Eegiment, 
By whose Valour, Discipline, and Perseverance 
The French land Forces in Asia were first withstood and repuked. 



38 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

Artillery of the Frencli India Company . 94 

Cavalry of ditto 15 

Volunteers of Bourbon 40 

The Battalion d'India .192 

Invalides 124 

In all there were only 1400. One of their first acts 
was to cut their commissary to pieces. Among the 
oflficei-s of the king's artillery was Jean Baptiste Louis 
Kom^e de I'lsle, the celebrated crystallographer, who was 
then secretary to a corps of engineers. The quantity of 
military stores delivered over by Lally to Coote is almost 
incredible. 

There were 671 brass and iron cannon and mortars; 
438 mortar-beds and carriages; 84,041 shot and shell, 
round, double-headed, and grape; 230,580 lbs. of powder; 
538,137 rounds of cartridge for arquebuses, muskets, 
carbines, pistols, and gingals ; 910 pairs of pistols ; 12,580 
other firearms ; 4895 swords, bayonets and sabres ; 1200 
poleaxes, and every other warlike munition in proportion. 
Tidings of the fall of Pondicherry occasioned the utmost 
joy in Britain; and on Sunday, the 2nd August, 
there were prayers and thanksgiving in all the English 
churches. 

On that day Lally arrived at Fort St. George a 
prisoner of parole. He had begged to be sent to 
Cudalore that he might have the attendance of French as 
well as British surgeons ; but the Governor of Madras 
insisted ui)on his removal to that place, whither he con- 
veyed him in his own palanquin. 

A regiment of Highlanders garrisoned Pondicherry, 
and as Lally had destroyed many of the British fortifica- 
tions, Colonel — afterwards Sir Eyre — Coote retaliated 
by blowing up the works and hurling the glacis into the 
ditch. The plunder acquired amounted to 2,000,000^. 
sterling. The quantity of lead discovered in the stores was 
immense. Lally found means to convey his own cash and 
Valuables (200,000 pagodas of eight shillings each) out of 
the garrison, but he was deprived of it by Coote's orders. 
The plunder of the magnificent palace was a subject 
U>v regret to the officers who beheld it. It had been 



THE COUNT DE LALLY. 39 

built by M. Dupleix, a former resident, at the cost of one 
million. On the same day that Lally surrendered, hia 
Scottish compatriot, M. Law, on whose assistance he had 
fol 1 time mainly relied, was defeated by Major Carnac. 

M. Law was a nephew of the famous financial projector, 
John Law, of Lauriston, near Edinburgh, who, in 1720, 
was Premier of France, and Comptroller-General of 
Finance — the same whose desperate schemes brought the 
kingdom to the verge of bankruptcy. M. Law had made 
himself useful to the Schah Zaddah, son of the late Mogul, 
in supporting the young prince's hereditary claims, and 
enforcing his authority on the provinces of the empire. 
With 200 Frenchmen (principally fugitives from Lally's 
outposts) he persuaded the schah to turn his arms against 
Bengal ; and accordingly the young and rash prince 
entered that rich and fertile province at the head of 
80,000 Indians, whose operations were directed by Law, 
and certain chevalieia his friends. In the eye of the 
British (who had then become the arbiters of Oriental 
thrones), the presence of the Scottish refugee and his fol- 
lowers was more prejudicial to the title of Zaddah than 
any other objection, and they joined the Subah of Bengal 
to oppose his progress. A battle ensued at Guy a, when 
Major Carnac, with 500 British, 2500 sepoys, and 20,000 
blacks, cut the vast force of the young prince to pieces, 
and took prisoner M. Law, with sixty French officers. 

Soon after the fall of Pondicherry, the French settle- 
ment of Mahl, on the coast of Malabar, was reduced by 
Major Hector Munro, of the 89th Highlanders, who cap- 
tured there 200 pieces of cannon, and thus the whole com- 
merce of the mighty peninsula of India, from the point of 
the Camatic to the banks of the Ganges, fell under the 
dominion of Britain, together with the extensive trade of 
the vast and wealthy provinces of Bengal, Behar, and 
Orixa. 

On the 3rd February, the nabob made his triumphal 
entry into Pondicherry, seated in a wooden castle on the 
back of a gigantic elephant, accompanied by twelve of his 
wives, escorted by British troops and by his own guards 
armed with lances, bows, and matchlocks. 



iO THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

Ultimately Lally received back his property, to the 
amount of 100,000/. in cash, and being brought to Britain 
a prisoner of war in H. M. S. Onslow, landed in September, 
1761. He was confined for a time to a certain limit in 
Nottinghamshire ; and on obtaining leave of George III. 
to depart, most unfortunately for himself, turned his steps 
1;owards France, the land of his father's adoption. 

Having given his parole of honour to return whenever 
the British Government should require his presence, the 
count, on the 14th October, " after having discharged all 
his debts to tradesmen and servants" (as the London 
papers of the time state), sailed for France. 

Notwithstanding the long and gallant defence he had 
maintained at Pondichcrry, thus aflfordiug the highest 
proofs of firmness and fidelity, bravery and activity, he 
was arrested soon after his return, and committed to that 
prison of so many terrible memories — the Bastille — 
accused of many grievous things by the Government, 
which now instituted a severe inquiry into the conduct of 
the civil and military officials who had commanded in 
Canada, the Carnatic, and other possessions taken by 
Britain. 

Among the charges brought against Lally were, be- 
traying the interests of King Louis and of the French 
East India Company ; abusing the high authority with 
which he had been invested ; unwarrantable exaction:? 
ii'om the subjects of his most Christian Majesty, and from 
foreigners resident in Pondicherry ; for permitting that 
place to fall into the hands of the British ; and gene- 
rally for mismanaging the public afl:airs committed to 
his care. 

In vain did this brave and unfortunate ofiicer urge his 
many services, his many wounds, his grey hairs, his heal fcii 
broken by toil, by anxiety, and by a torrid clime, in the 
cause of France. In vain did he urge the numerous re- 
monstrances he had sent to Paris, and Count d' Ache's 
detention of M. de Lequille's military chest; that at 
Madras he had resigned a desperate command, which tlie 
Chevalier des Soupirs declined to accept ; in vain was the 
protest signed in the hall of Fort St. Lewis adduced to 



THE COUNT DE LALLY. 41 

eIiow Low his efforts liad been baffled, and rendered more 
than futile, by the insubordination of Count d'Ache ; in 
vain did he explain how the Marquis de Bussy had 
loitered in Arcot ; tliat he had long and frequently been 
without pay and without provision for his troops ; how 
the Rajah of Mysore had failed in his promises ; how his 
soldiers had deserted, and how famine in the streets of 
Pondicherry was a source of deadlier fear than the British 
cannon-shot; how his detachment sent toGingihadbeen cut 
off to a man ; how Chandernagore had been taken by trea- 
chery, contrary to the faith of treaties and that neutrality 
which had subsisted between the French and British iu 
India, and immediately after tlie former had rendered the 
latter a signal service in not taking part with the Nabob of 
Bengal. The weak Government of Louis XV. required a 
victim to satisfy the people ; thus his defence was useless. 
Brigadier-General the Marquis de Bussy and Admiral 
Count d'Ache, whose honour and safety were chiefly 
interested in his condemnation, were the principal wit- 
nesses examined against him. He was detained for four 
years in a close prison, and, according to the cruel and 
barbarous lav*^s then existing in France, " the bequest of 
ages of violence and anarchy," was Q-epeatedly tortured. 
Though his infamous judges were convinced of his perfect 
innocence, yet it was stated that, in consequence of the 
severe conclusions of the Procure ur-General against the 
Count de Lally, on the night of Sunday, the 4th May, 
1763, he was removed from the Bastille to the prison of 
the Conciergerie, which adjoined the Court of Parlia- 
ment. 

" Though it was but one o'clock in the morning wlien 
he arrived at tlie Conciergerie (to quote the report of his 
condemnation), he refused to go to bed ; and about seven 
he appeared before his judges. They ordered him to be 
divested of his red riband and cross, to which he sub- 
mitted with the most perfect indifference ; and he was then 
placed on the stool to undergo a new course of interro- 
gation." 

At that crisis a pang of bitterness shot through hi« 
heart j clasping his hands, and raising his eyes: — 



42 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

" My God !" he exclaimed ; " oh, my God ! is this th 
reward of forty years faithful service as a soldier T 

The interrogatory lasted six hours, and D'Ach^ and 
De Bussy were successively examined against him. By 
nine in the evening the examination was over, and the 
count was re-conducted to the Bastille, surrounded by 
guards and several companies of the watch of Paris. 

At six o'clock next morning the judges delivered their 
opinions, which were so various, that the clock of the 
Couciergerie struck four in the afternoon before they 
came to a conclusion and pronounced their arret or decree, 
which contained a brief recital of the charges against De 
Lally, without specifying the facts on which they were 
respectively founded ; but for the reparation of which it 
was declared that he should be stripped of all his civil 
titles, his military rank, and dignities ; that all his pro- 
perty should be confiscated to the king ; and that his head 
should be struck from his body on the public scaffold. 

Without emotion the count had heard their sentence, 
and with the utmost resolution prepared to die ; yet he was 
detained, hovering as it were between life and death, 
until the morning of the 9th May, 1766, when he was 
drawn on a hurdle to the Place de Greve, and hastily, 
almost privately, beheaded, with his mouth filled by a 
wooden gag, to prevent him addressing the people — thus 
adding another to the manv barbarous judicial murderl 
which disgrace the annals of France. 

His son, Trophine Gerard, who had been kept at the 
College of Harcourt in entire ignorance of his birth and 
of the proceedings against his father, only learned all 
these secrets when the public interest and commiseration 
became too great to conceal them longer. On the 9 th 
the poor boy learned that the great General Lally, who 
was to die, was his father. He rushed, as he tells us, to 
the place of execution to bid this father, so recently found, 
" an eternal adieu — to let him hear the voice of a son 
amid the voices of his executioners, and embrace him on 
the scaffold when he was about to perish ;" but he arrived 
only in time to see the axe descending and his father's 
blood pouring from a dismembered trunk upon a sanded 



THE COUNT DE LALLY. 45 

scaffold. Overcome with horror, Trephine — afterwards 
the great Count Lally Tollendal — swooned in the street, 
and was borne away insensible to the College of Harconrt. 
Thus in his sixty-fourth year terminated the eventful 
career of Count Lally, the victim surrendered by a weak 
and tyrannical ministry to popular clamour, affording by 
his fate a m-emorable instance of the injustice, ingratitude, 
and barbarity of the Court of Versailles. 



44 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 



|flljn Canimit, of Jf assifern, 

K.T.S., 

COLONEL OP THE GORDON HIGHLANDERS; SLAIN AT 
QUATRE-BRAS, 1815. 

From among the many distinguished Scottish officei-s who 
served under Wellington, if we could select one for the 
delineation of his career, it would be John Cameron of 
the House of Fassifern and Locheil. 

This brave soldier was the eldest of the seven children 
of Ewen Cameron, Laird of Fassifern (i.e. the Point of 
Alders), and his wife, Lucy Campbell, of Barcaldine, 
whose father succeeded to the estate of Glenure on the 
■death of her uncle, Colin Campbell, who was shot at the 
Ferry of Ballachulish, in Appin, by Allan Breac Stewart, 
otherwise known as Vic Ian, Vic Alaster, — a crime for 
which the Laird of Ardsheil was judicially murdered by 
the Duke of Argyle at the Castle of Inverary. 

Esven Cameron was the son of John tJie Tamster, a 
younger brother of the great Locheil, who commenced 
the insurrection of 1745 j and it is said that this power- 
ful chief, on being summoned by Prince Charles to attend 
his memorable landing in Moidart on the 25th July, was 
predisposed to warn him against the projected rising of 
the clans. 

" If such be your intention, Donald," said John c£ 
Fassifern, "write your opinion to the Prince, but do not 
trust yourself within the fascination of his presence. I 
know you better than you know youi'self, and foresee that 
you will be unable to refuse comi^liance." 

But Locheil preferred an interview with the Prince, 
end the event proved tie truth of Fassifern's prophecy. 
He joined him immediately with all the clan Cameron, 



JOHN CAMERON, OF FASSIFERN, K.T.S. 45 

and tlie gallant revolt of the clans immediately followed. 
Fassifern was taken prisoner after Culloden, and was long 
detained in tlie Castle of Edinburgh ; there he was kept 
so close that the year 1752 arrived, yet he heard nothing 
of the barbarous execution of his brother, the amiable and 
unfortunate Dr. Archibald Cameron, until one evening 
a soldier brought him a kettle with hot water. He took 
00' a paper which was twisted round the handle, and 
found it to be the " last speech and dying confession, itc, 
of tlie traitor Archibald Cameron." He immediately 
ordered a suit of the deepest mourning, and on appearing 
in it before the authorities was brutally upbraided by the 
Lord Justice Clerk for putting on mourning for a traitor. 

" Alas !" sitid Cameron, " that traitor was my dear 
brother !" 

" A rebel !" retorted the judge, scornfully. He was 
exiled, but afterwards returned to die at Fassifern. 

Colonel John Cameron, the grand-nephew of the Jaco- 
bite chief, was born in Argyleshire, at the farm of Invers- 
caddle (a house which belonged to his family before the 
acquisition of Fassifern), on the 16th of August, 1771, 
only twenty-five years after the battle of Culloden, and 
while those inhuman butcheries, for which the name of 
Cumberland is still abhorred in Scotland, were fresh in 
the memory of the people. According to the old custom, 
common to Scotland and Ireland, he was assigned to the 
care of a foster-mother named M'Millan, who dwelt in 
Glendescheric, on the shore of Locharkaig. Thus, born 
and bred among the Gael, while the clans were unchanged 
and uncorrupted, and when the glens were full of that 
gallant race, with all their old traditions and historic 
memories, their military pride, and peculiar prejudices, 
Cameron was reared as thorough a chieftain as if had lived 
in the days of James lY. Educated among his nativa 
mountains, sharing in the athletic sports of the people, 
and those in which his foster-brother, Ewan M'Millan, 
who was a fox-hunter in Croydart, and a year his elder, 
excelled, young Cameron grew up a handsome and hardy 
Highlander, and early became distinguished by that 
proud, fiery, and courageous temperament for which h& 



46 TEE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

was SO well known among the troops of Lord HilPs 
division, and which sometimes caused him to set the niles 
of discipline, and the aristocratic coldness of Wellington, 
alike at defiance, if they interfered with his native ideas 
of rank and self-esteem. 

In the " Bomance of War," a work which has made 
his name familiar to the reading public, a faithful descrip- 
tion of him will be found. He was above the middle 
height, had a pleasing, open countenance, curly brown 
hair, and bright blue eyes, which, when he was excited, 
filled with a dusky fire. 

Arms were then the only occupation for a Highland 
gentleman ; and thus in his twenty-second year, on the 
8th of February, 1793, he obtained an ensigncy in the 
26th, or Cameronian Regiment, commanded by Sir William 
Erskine. He never joined that corps ; but on raising a 
sufficient number of men in Locheil, procured a lieute- 
nantcy in an independent Highland company then being 
formed by Capt. A. Campbell, of Ard-chattan. He was 
gazetted on the 3rd of April ; but this company was 
either disbanded or incorporated with the old 93rd Regi- 
ment, to which he was appointed lieutenant on the 30th 
of October in the same year. He did not join this regi- 
ment either, but busied himself in raising a company to 
procure the rank of captain in a corps of Highlanders, 
which, in obedience to a letter of service^ dated 10th 
February, 1794, the Duke of Gordon was raising for his 
son, the young Marquis of Huntly, then a captain in the 
Scottish Regiment of Guards. This battalion was to 
<5onsist of 46 officers, 64 staflT, and 1000 rank and file, to 
be raised among the clan of Gordon. 

From the lands of Fassifem and Locheil Cameron drew 
a company, principally of his own name and kindred, all 
hardy and handsome young Highlanders, among whom 
were his foster-brother, Ewen M'Millan, who never left 
him ; three Camerons, Ewen, Alaster, and Angus, whom 
he made sergeants ; Ewen Kennedy, for whom ho pro- 
cured an ensigncy, and another, who died a lieutenant 
With these, all clad in their native tartans, he marched 
from the Braes of Lochaber to Castle Gordon, in Strnth- 



JOHN CAMERON, OF FASSIFERN, K.T.S. 47 

«pey, where lie was introduced to Alexander, Duke of 
Gordon, the Cock o' the North, by his uncle, the Rev. Dr. 
Boss, of Kilraanivaig, the worthy author of the statistical 
account of that parish. He at once received a company 
in the duke's own regiment, to which he was appointed 
on the 13th of February, 1794, and with which he at- 
tended the grand muster of the whole at Aberded on the 
24th of June, when the corps was named the Gordon 
Highlanders^ or 100th Regiment, afterwards and now the 
92nd. The uniform coats and vests were scarlet, faced 
with yellow, and laced with silver to suit the epaulettes. 
The kilts and plaids were in one piece, each containing 
twelve yards of Gordon tartan ; the claymores, dirks, 
buckles, and sporrans were mounted with silver; the 
bonnets were plumed with black ostrich feathers, and en- 
circled by the old fess checque of the House of Stuart. 
The men were all Highlanders ; scarcely one of them, and 
but very few of the officers, could speak English ; the 
enthusiasm was so great in Badenoch that, in some 
instances, fathers and sons joined its ranks together. 

At that time, when the French Revolution menaced 
Europe with anarchy, and the Convention declared war 
against Britain and Holland, the number of Highlanders 
in our service is almost incredible. During a period of 
fifty years the clans furnished eighty-six battalions of 
infantiy, some of which were twelve hundred strong.* 

How many could the Highlands raise now ? Centrali- 
zation, corruption, and local tyranny of the most infamous 
description have turned their beautiful glens into a silent 
wilderness, and the very place where Cameron raised his 
company of soldiers is now desolate and bare. " I can 
point," says the author of a letter to the Marquis of 
Breadalbane, on his late ruthless clearings ^ " to a place 
where thirty recruits that manned the 92nd in Egypt 

* As an example of the number of officers belonging to the clans, 
who served during the war and escaped its slaughter, we may state 
that there were on full and half-pay commissions, in 1816, 22 Bu- 
chanans; 67 Camerons; 22 Drummonds ; 26 Fergusons; 41 Forbesea; 
49 Grahames; 90 Frazers ; 96 Grants; 144 M 'Leans and M'Kett* 
zies ; 248 Campbells ; and other names in the same proportion. 



A3 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

came from — men l)efore whom N'apoleon's Invincibles bit 
the dust — and now only t^;. - milies reside tliere together. 
I was lately informed by & grazier that on his form a 
hundred swordsmen could be gathered at their country's 
call, and now there are only himself and two shepherds." 
The brave Gael, who crowded in tens of thousands to the 
British ranks, saw not the reward that Avas coming ; 
evictions and wholesale clearings of the Scottisli poor 
were then unknown. God gave the land to the people — 
they believed it was theirw r l-ut the feudal charters have 
decided otherwise, and tho o^ans have been swept from 
Lochness to Locheil, and from Locheil to the shores of 
Lochlomond. The hills and the valleys are there, but the 
tribes have departed, and who can restore them 1 

Cameron of Fassifern embarked with his regiment at 
Fort George, in Ardersier, for Southampton, Avhere, as 
kilted corps were unusual then in England, its arrival 
created a great sensation. From thence the battalion 
sailed for Gibraltar, under the command of Huntly, its 
colonel commandant, and disembarked at the Rock on 
the 27th of October. It was on this occasion that Mrs. 
Grant, of Laggan, composed her now popular song, " The 
Blue Bells of Scotland." 

At Gibraltar a coolness ensued between Cameron and 
the marquis, and from that hour they never were friends. 
The former having had a dispute at the mess with a Cap- 
tain M'Pherson on some point of Highland etiquette, 
high words and a duel followed. Captain, afterwards 
Colonel Mitchel, C.B., and Knight of St. Anne of Russia, 
was Cameron's second. Happily nothing serious resulted ; 
and next day at the mess Lord Huntly drank wine with 
them all, begging that in future no more such quarrels 
might occur, and concluded by saying — 

*' I may be pardoned in requiring this, as, I believe, all 
the gentlemen here are the tenants of my father." 

*'No, marquis," said Fassifern, loftily; "by Heaven, 
here is one who is no tenant of the house of Gordon." 

The young marquis frowned ; he did not reply, but 
never forgot the haughty retort. 

la sentiments and character, even in manner, FassifcrD 



JOHN CAMEHON, OF FASSIFERN, K.T.S. 49 

belonged to a past age — to a period of time beyond our 
own ; for the stern pride, the Spartan spirit of clant-hip, 
with all the wild associations of the Gael, deeply imbued 
his mind, and gave a decision to his manner and a fresh- 
ness to his enthusiasm. Proud and fiery, like all his 
race, he had the defect of being quick and hasty in his 
speech ; but he never called aloud the name of an officer 
on parade, though more than one was reprehended by 
liim in terms of severity, which, when the gust of passion 
was past, his generous spirit told liim had been too great. 
He was a rigid disciplinarian, strict even to a fault, and 
yet withal he possessed a charm which won him the 
affection and respect of all his regiment. To English 
officers who did not understand him, to Wellington in 
particular, his pride seemed perhaps mere petulance, an(/ 
his Highland chivalry (the result of his education) eccen- 
tricity : but of these more anon. 

After receiving its colours on Windmill Hill, the regi- 
ment embarked for Corsica, and on the 11th of July, 
1795, landed at Bastia, where, under the influence of 
Paoli, the allies had landed in the preceding year, and 
united the birthplace of Bonaparte to the British do- 
minions. After suppressing a rebellion in Corte, a town 
in the centre of the isle, and forming the secret expedition 
under their major, Alexander Napier, of Blackstone, to 
reduce Porto Ferrajo in Elba, the Highlanders returned 
to Gibraltar, where General de Burgh publicly testified 
his approbation of their conduct. 

Cameron who was now, by the death of Major Donald 
IM'Donald, of Boisdale, senior captain, accompanied the 
regiment to Portsmouth, where it landed in May, and 
from whence it went to Dublin in June, 1798. Here he 
became attached to a young lady possessed of great per- 
sonal attractions, and announced to his father his intention 
of marrying. But old Ewen Cameron had imbibed some 
curious prejudices against the Irish, for a false rumour 
had gained credence in the Highlands that Prince Charles 
had been beti-ayed at Culloden by his two Irish followers, 
Sullivan and Sheridan. There was great consternation in 
Fassifern and the Braes of Lochaber when it was an- 

C 



50 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

nonnced that the young laird was about to wed a stranger ; 
and however absurd this prejudice may appear, old Fassi- 
fern set all his wits to work, and contrived to have the 
engagement broken off completely. A quarrel ensued 
between the lovers ; rumour speaks of another duel with 
some one ; but from that time to the hour of his death, 
Cameron was never known to form another serious attach- 
ment. 

At this time the Irish were in arras ; Vinegar Hill was 
valiantly fought and lost by them ; the Highlanders were 
kept incessantly on the march, and their belts were never 
©ff. During these operations, when encamped near Moat, 
they were re-numbered as the 92nd Regiment of the 
line. 

After being quartered in Athlone, on the 15th June, 
1799, Cameron embarked with the regiment for the camp 
at Barham Downs, where the troops destined for the ex- 
pedition to Holland were assembling under Lieutenant- 
General Sir Ralph Abercrombie. The Gordon Highland- 
ers were brigaded with the 1st Royal Scots, 25th, or Scots 
Borderers ; the 49th and Cameron Highlanders, under 
Brigadier Sir John Moore. The troops sailed from Rams- 
gate, landed near the Helder, and on that evening the 
Gordon Highlanders, after having fifteen men drowned, 
fought bravely at the battle of the Sandhills. Here they 
and Cameron first saw the French, for whom he felt an 
hereditary abhorrence, having been reared to believe, like 
every Highlander, that they had trifled, forty years before,, 
with the best interests of Scotland, and betrayed Princo 
Charles and the clans to England. 

He served at the head of his company in all the opera- 
tions under the gallant Moore — during the advance to 
Oude Sluys, the action at Crabhenden, where Captain 
Ramsay of Dalhousie was wounded ; the engagement with 
General Brune ; the attack on Alkmaai* ; the retreat to 
Zuype ; and the battle of Egmont-op-Zee, where it is pro- 
bable that his French antipathy received an additional 
incentive, by the infliction of a severe wound. In that 
decisive charge, by which twenty pieces of cannon were 
retaken from the enemy, a ball struck one of his knees j 



JOHN CAMERON, OP FASSIFERN, K.T.S. 51 

and as he was falling, tlie arm of the faithful M^Millaa 
was the first to support him. Here the Marquis of 
Huntly was wounded in the shoulder ; and neither he not 
Cameron ever fully recovered the effect of these bullets. 
In this affair the Highlanders had 288 officers and men. 
killed and wounded. 

Among the latter was the henchman Ewen, who lost 
an ear. Rendered furious by the wound, regardless of 
Cameron's orders, he rushed among the French, and drove 
his bayonet, with a ball at the same mom<in6, through the 
body of the soldier who had wounded him. Returning 
to his company, he said in Gaelic, to Cameron — 

" You see what yonder son of the devil has done to me/* 
and pointed to his ear, which was dripping with blood. 

" He served you rightly,"' said Cameron, in the same 
language ; " why did you skirmish so far in front 1" 

" Bioul /'' muttered Ewen; "he won't take my other 
ear." 

Here Sir John Moore was severely wounded, and Cam- 
eron desired two Highlanders to carry him to the rear. 
Moore afterwards offered 201. to the soldiers who carried 
him off. The reward was proffered to the regiment on. 
parade, and it is a noble trait of it, that no man ever 
stepped forward to claim the fee. On being created a 
K.B., and requiring supporters for his arms, Moore ad- 
dressed the following interesting letter to Lieutenant- 
Colonel Napier, then commanding the regiment : — 

" Kichmond, ] 7th Nov. 1804. 
" My dear Napier, — I have been for some days on 
leave in London, and received your letters there. I am 
here with my mother for a day, and return this night to 
Sandgate. My reason for troubling you for a drawing is, 
that, as a Knight of the Bath, I am entitled to supporters, 
I have chosen a light-infantry soldier for one, being colo- 
nel of the 1st Light Infantry regiment ; and a Highland 
soldier for the other, in gratitude to, and in commemora- 
tion of, two soldiers of tb*- 92nd, who, in the action of the 
2nd October, raised me from the ground, when I was lying 
on my face, wounded and stunned (they must have thought 
e2 



52 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

3ne dead), and helped me out of the field. As my senses 
were returning, I heard one of them say, ' Here is iJie 
geiieral ; let ics take him aioay,^ upon which they stooped 
and raised me by the arm. I never could discover who 
they were, and therefore concluded they must have been 
killed. I hope the 92nd will not have any objection (as 
I have commanded them, and as they rendered me such 
a service) to my taking one of the corps as a supporter. 
I do not care for the drawing being elegant ; all I want 
is the correct uniform and appointments. Any person who 
can draw a figure tolerably, but will dress him correctly, 
with arms, accoutrements, and in parade order, will 
answer every purpose, as I want it for a model only, 
from which a painter may draw another. If you are at a 
loss for a person to do thiS; I dare say Lieutenant-Colonel 
Birch would do it, or get one of the officers of the depart- 
ment to do so, if you sent a man properly dressed to Col- 
chester ; but I think your own quarters will produce 
some one sufficiently expert. I received your letter by 
Captain (Peter) Grant, before I left Sandgate : he seems 
a very gentlemanly young man. I do not think I can 
recommend a proper adjutant to you at present. Kem em- 
ber me kindly to my friends of the 92nd, and believe me, 
my dear Napier, sincerely, &c., 

"John Moore.* 

"Lieut.-Col. Napier, of Blackstone." 

After the convention at Alkmaar, and the cessation of 
hostilities, the regiment embarked near the Helder, and 
landed at Yarmouth on the 29th October. Though still 
.suflering from his wound, Cameron obtained the tempo- 
rary command of a light infantry corps under Lord Hope- 
ton. This provisional battalion was exercised on Barham 
Downs, where he won the reputation of a zealous and 
able officer. He came home on leave to his native 
glen, kindly bringing with him Ewen McMillan, who 
had a craving to visit his old mother by the shore of 
liocharkaig. 

They rejoined the Highlanders soon after, and the next 

* MS. Records, 92nd Highlanderg. 



JOHlf CAMERON, OP FASSIFERN, K.T.S. oS 

scene of Cameron's service was in Egypt. Before embark- 
ing, his regiment was supplied with yellow knapsacks^, 
having a red thistle painted on the backs of them. 

Fassifem accompanied his regiment on General Mait- 
land's futile expedition to the Isle de Houat, from whence, 
with other regiments destined for the Mediterranean, 
they embarked under Lord Dalhousie's orders ; and after 
touching at Port-Mahon in Minorca, passed on to the 
attack of Cadiz, which was abandoned, in consequence ol 
•a pestilence that infected the coast. The expedition then 
sailed for Malta ; and from thence to the Bay of Marmora, 
on the coast of Asiatic Turkey, where Abercrombie had 
concentrated 15,000 men to expel the French from Egypt. 
He had six regiments of dragoons, and forty battalions 
of infantry, seven of which were foreign. 

Eassifern served with distinction in all the operations 
of the Egyptian campaign, including the landing effected 
under a desperate cannonade on the shore of Aboukir ; 
the bloody contest round the Tower of Mandora, where 
his company occupied a conspicuous position in front of 
the line, as skirmishers, and where his colonel, Erskine 
of Cardross, received a mortal wound, and of his com- 
rades there were 109 officers and men killed and wounded. 
The intrepid conduct of his regiment was particularly 
mentioned in the dispatches of Abercrombie, whose guard 
of honour was daily furnished from its ranks. Cameron 
was at the battle of Alexandria, where, on the 21st 
March, 1801, he received a wound under the left eye, and 
saw the brave Abercrombie receive his death shot. 

The troops then advanced to Bosetta ; and by the time 
when the Gordon Highlanders entered Grand Cairo — 
"the Queen of Cities" — the capital of Moaz El Kehira, 
their shoes were completely worn away. Quarter-master 
Wallace was ordered to procure an immediate supply ; 
but there was one gigantic grenadier from Speyside, for 
whom a suitable pair of brogues could not be found in all 
Grand Cairo. 

For his services in Egypt, Cameron received a gold 
medal from the Grand Seignior ; and on the promo- 
tion of Major Napier to the lieutenant-colonelcy, he ob- 



54 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

tained the majority on the 5th April, 1801 ; and seven 
months afterwards, on the conclusion of that convention, 
by which Grand Cairo was surrendered, the Highlanders 
were ordered home to Scotland, and were quartered ia 
Glasgow. 

About this time a dispute occurred among the officei"s. 
Some of them, who were Lowlanders, insisted that the 
Gaelic, which was generally spoken at the mess, should be 
abolished there. It was put to the vote, and by au over- 
whelming majority, the Celts secured its retention ; but 
in those days, there were in the regiment twelve gentlemen 
of the clan Donald, all kinsmen, who invariably voted 
together in everything, and could carry any point they 
pleased. These factions were known as the national and 
anti-national parties. 

After the short peace of Amiens, war was declared again ; 
and when the army was increased, the Gordon Highland- 
ers were strengthened by the addition of a second battalion, 
and Major Cameron marched with it to Weely in England, 
to join the force mustered to oppose the expected invasion 
by Napoleon. The invasion ended in smoke ; but the 
battalion remained cantoned in England until 1807, and 
in the preceding year lined the streets of London during 
the funeral of Nelson. Fassifern embarked mth them at 
Harwich on the Danish expedition, under Lord Cathcart ; 
and, for the first time, served imder Wellington — then Sir 
Arthur Wellesley — at the attack on Kioge, where Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Napier, at the head of the Highlanders, 
charged the Danes, who were routed with the loss of their 
artillery. 

After the bombardment of Copenhagen, and the return 
of the troops to Britain, Major Cameron, in consideration 
of his services, received a brevet lieutenant-colonelcy on 
the 25th April, 1808; a full lieutenant-colonelcy on the 
23rd June following ; and was shortly afterwards ordered 
on the Swedish expedition under Sir John Moore, who 
led 10,000 men to assist Gustavus Adolplms IV., a gal- 
lant but fiery and intractable prince, against whom Rus- 
sia and France had united their arms. The violent 
tamper of the Swedish monarch rendered this undertaking 



JOHN CAMERON, OP FASSIFERN, K.T.S. 55 

completely futile, and, without achieving anything, the 
expedition returned to Britain. 

As junior lieutenant-colonel, Cameron now remained 
with the second battalion at home ; while the first, under 
Lieutenant-Colonel Napier, accompanied Sir John Moore 
a third time on that fatal service, from which he never 
returned. In 1809, the gallant Napier fell with his 
leader at Corunna, and then Fassifern obtained the com- 
mand of the first battalion, committing the second, in 
February, to the care of Lieutenant-Colonel Lamond, of 
Lamond. Thus, at the early age of thirty-seven, and 
after only fifteen years' service, he found himself at the 
head of one of the finest Scottish regiments in the service 
of his country. 

In July, with the right wing of the first battalion, he 
embarked on board H. M. S. Sujjerb, 74, at Harwich, on 
the great expedition under the Earl of Chatham, in Sir 
William Erskine's brigade. He was at the landing on 
Breesand in Walcheren, and the occupation of Ter Goes 
on South Beveland. He landed with 998 Highlanders; 
but so fatal was the Dutch pestilence, that in October 
only 250 of them were on parade ; and the grenadier 
company, which was entirely recruited from Aberdeen- 
shire, was reduced to tioo sergeants and three privates. 
Cameron deeply regretted the loss of his men. The first 
who died was a fine young clansman, whom he had 
brought with him from Lochaber, and he attended his 
funeral in the churchyard of a neighbouring village. 
After addressing the soldiers on the merits of the de- 
ceased, " Cover him up with the greenest sods," said he, 
" for he was a brave lad, a good soldier, and true High- 
lander !" 

On its return from this disastrous service, his battalion 
occupied Woodbridge Barracks in England. At this time 
an Englishman obtained an ensigncy in the corps, which 
Cameron considered an innovation j for while, on one 
hand, he disliked the French, from old associations, on 
the other, he was not, for the same reason, over partial 
to Englishmen, and was wont to affirm, " that a Southern 
in the kilt reminded him of a hog in armour." XJnfor- 



56 THE CAVALIEES OF FORTUNE. 

tiinately for himself, Ensign Mudge (for such was the 
name of the new acquisition) had no particular love for 
the kilfc, at which he railed on all occasions, in very coarse 
terms, and once particularly at an Artillery ball in Wool- 
wich, which so roused Cameron's Highland ire, that he 
vowed, " if such remarks were ever made again by Ensign 
Mudge, he would bring him to a general court-martial !" 
At this time, the officers of the 42nd wore the kilt con- 
stantly by their own desire. 

Undeterred by Cameron's threat, Mudge wrote to the 
Commander-in-Chief, stating that his health would not 
permit him to wear a dress so unchristian and uncivilized. 
Sir David Dundas addressed an answer, not to him, but 
to Fassifern, stating that his Majesty had no further use 
for the services of poor Mr. Mudge, on whom this result, 
which Cameron and his Highlanders hailed with satis- 
faction, fell like a thunderclap. 

While at Woodbridge, he invited to the mess Dr. 
Moore (the venerable father of the hero of Corunna), who 
afterwards addressed to him a letter, expressing his high 
sense " of the kind and social reception" he had met with 
from him and his officers. After this, in July, 1810, the 
battalion marched to Canterbury, previous to embarkation 
for Spain ; Cameron obtained a short leave of absence, 
and so much had he become attached to the corps, that he 
wept when he left it even temporarily. On revisiting 
his native glen, his aged father, then in his seventieth 
year (the old laird was born in 1740), expressed great 
reluctance to part with him again, for, like a true High- 
lander, he had some dark forebodings of the future. 

His three sisters were married : Mary, to M'Donald of 
Glencoe ; Jean, to Roderick M'Neill of Barra ; and Ca- 
therine, to Cluny M'Pherson; his eldest brother Duncan 
was practising as a writer to the signet, in the capital ; 
and Peter, the second, was away to India in command of 
the Balcarras. The old laird was almost alone at Fassi- 
fern ; he represented to the colonel, that, though he was 
only thirty-nine years of age, he had received two wounds, 
from one of which he still suffered ; that he had been 
many times engaged with the enemy, and had seect 



JOHX CAMERON, OP FASSTFERN, K.T.S. 57 

enough of war. He urged Lim to settle at home and to 
marry ; offering him his second estate of Arthurstone, in 
Angus ; but the love of his profession was too strong in 
the heroic heart of Cameron, and he rejoined his battalion, 
then under the command of Major Archibald M'Donell 
(of the family of Keppoch), at the far-famed Lines of 
Torres Yedras. 

To make his regiment as efficient as possible, he ordered 
that no ofEcer who had been less than ten years in the 
service should ride on the march ; this diminished the 
number of useless horses which every regiment then pos- 
sessed ; while to increase the number of bayonets, he 
turned the whole of the band into .the ranks; thus, 
throughout the whole Peninsular War, he retained only 
the bagpipes, drums, and fifes. His regiment belonged 
to the 1st Brigade, or General Howard's, in the 2nd Di- 
vision of Infantry, or Lord Hill's, with the 50th, under 
Colonel Stuart, and the 71st Highlanders, under Colonel 
Cadogan, with both of whom his fiery temper and jea- 
lousy on points of etiquette soon involved him in a cool- 
ness that lasted till they were both removed by death. 
The Highlanders entered Spain by the way of Alber- 
garia, and their peculiar garb soon changed the constant 
cry of Live the English,'' to " Viva los JEscotosf Viva 
Don Juan Cameron, y sus valiante Escotos ! Viva f 

This was when following up the retreating Massena. 
Notwithstanding all efforts of that general to restore the 
barbarities of ancient warfare, much good feeling pre- 
vailed between the French and British when out of the 
field. Of this, one anecdote will suffice. 

A French picket in front of Cameron's regiment, were 
about to slay a bullock for their dinner, when the animal 
broke loose, and dashed across the neutral ground, where 
a Highlander killed it by a single ball, and his comrades 
proceeded immediately to cut up their prize in view of 
the hungry and disappointed foe, who sent over two 
soldiers, waving white handkerchiefs. Under these ex- 
tempore flags of truce, they brought a message from their 
officer, saying that he was " sure Scottish soldiers were 
too generous to deprive his men of the only provision ai 



58 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

they had seen for some days." The Highlauders sent them 
back with half the beef, several loaves of bread, and a 
bottle of rum. After this, they became so familiar that 
some of our pickets went over and drank with those of 
the enemy, until Wellington's order forbade it as unsafe 
and improper. 

Cameron distinguished himself by his activity, at the 
head of his gallant Highlanders, in all the arduous opera- 
tions of that sanguinary war. He led his regiment at 
Fuentes d'Onor, where it was on the right, covering a 
brigade of nine pounders, when it endured a severe can- 
nonade, and had thirty-seven officers and men killed and 
wounded. Major Peter Grant had his arm torn off by a 
cannon-shot, but he survived to die lately, at a good old 
age, amongst his kindred in Strathspey. 

The regiment was then 897 strong. Cameron was at 
the second siege of Badajoz, and at the surprise of Ge- 
rard's division, on the 28th of October, 1811, when, on a 
dark, rainy morning, and under cover of a dense mist. 
Sir Kowland Hill's troops attacked the village of Arroya 
del Molinos, or the Mills-of-the-King. In this brilliant 
affair, Fassifern attacked the two retreating squares of 
the French with his Highlanders, and breaking through 
one, sword in hand, formed on the other side of the Fuebla, 
and completed the overthrow of Marshal Gerard, who 
had all his artillery, baggage, money, officers, horses, and 
1,400 men taken. In the charge through the village, 
Cameron received a wound in the sword hand, and Cap- 
tain M'Pherson, with whom he fought the duel at Gi- 
braltar, was shot by his side. On this occasion the High- 
landers had a parody made on the old song of " Johnny 
Cope," for Gerard, until he heard the pipers of the 92nd 
playing that popular air, believed the attack to be a mere 
exchange of shots between his videttes and the guerillas. 
Cameron's wound was a narrow escape, and is thus men- 
tioned by an eye-witness :* 

" The captain of the grenadier company having been 
wounded early in the action, the senior lieutenant, on 

* Lieutenant Hope, 92nd. 



JOHN CAMERON, OF FASSIFERN, K.T.S. 59 

assuming the command of it, made a false movement ; on 
perceiving which, the colonel, greatly irritated, repeated 
his former orders in a voice of thunder, and, as was his 
usual custom when displeased, struck his left breast with 
his right hand, which then grasped the hilt of his sword. 
The last syllable of his orders had just been delivered, 
when a bullet, despatched by one of the enemy's riflemen, 
struck the first joint of his middle finger, shattered the 
bone, passed through the handle of the sword, and struck 
his breast so violently, that he relinquished the command 
of the battalion to Major Mitchell, in the full conviction 
that the ball had passed into his body. On being 
undeceived, the gallant colonel instantly rejoined his bat- 
talion, and, with his middle finger dangling by a small 
piece of skin only, remained at the head of his High- 
landers to the close of the engagement." 

When the French were completely driven out, and 
when Hill's division was on tlie march for San Pedro, 
Cameron, who had lost much blood, was conducted by 
Ewen M'Millan to a house in Arroya, to have the wound 
dressed, and the finger, which yet, dangled by a sinew, cut 
off. On entering, they found it occupied by a noisy and 
tipsy party of Spanish dragoons, who, notwithstanding 
the rank and wound of Fassifern, endeavoured to eject 
him. High words ensued, and a dragoon dared to aim a 
blow at his head with a sabre. Cameron instinctively 
raised his wounded hand for protection, and had his right 
arm cut to the bone. Rendered furious by the sight of 
his master's blood, McMillan levelled his musket at the 
head of the insolent Spaniard, and would have shot him 
dead ; but Cameron, who was aware that the Conde de 
Penne Yillamur's dragoons occupied the whole village, 
exclaimed — 

" Desist, Ewen, for God's sake do not fire !" and struck 
up his foster-brother's musket, the bullet from which 
pierced the ceiling. He never could discover the perpe- 
trator of this severe wound, from the effects of which he 
Uuftered long. 

During the harassing marches of Hill's division in the 
desolate Estramadura, his native hardihood never flinched, 



60 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

though the miseries endured by the troops were excessive 
in that naked district, where they were constantly in 
arrears of pay, bivouacking without tents or fires, or 
cantoned in roofless and ruined towns, marching day and 
night in the wet and chill of winter, or the heat of the 
summer solano, when the white dust blew down the 
mountain passes, and the air became thick with flies ; 
when the soil of the vast plains cracked and rent ; when 
the perspiration rose in hazy steam above the marching 
columns ; when comrades fought like tigers around the 
wayside wells and casual pools, to fill their canteens at 
the puddle tlirough which, perhaps, the advanced guard 
had passed an hour before ; when years of hardship, 
danger, starvation, and rags were to be endured, Fassifern 
never had a day's illness or absence from parade ; nor 
did his hardy Gordon Highlanders ever lose a man by 
fatigue, save upon two occasions. 

These exceptions were Lieutenants Marshall and Hill, 
two fine young officers*; the first of whom died in a 
wretched bullock car — died of sheer starvation, as he 
was being conveyed into Badajoz; and the second, unable 
to keep up with his men, perished of the same awful 
deatli among the mountains, between Talavera and Toledo. 
It is said that, on many occasions, Fassifern would have 
starved also, but for the vigorous efforts of his foster- 
brother and henchman, Ewen M'Millan, who, despite 
Lord Wellington's orders, plundered the Dons without 
mercy, when the comfort of his chieftain and master 
required him to do so. 

After incessant skirmishes and daily marches along the 
banks of the Tagus, and after a desperate affair of out- 
posts at La Nava, on the 18th May, 1812, Hill marched 
to destroy the forts erected by the French at the bridge 
of Almarez. The 50th, and a wing of the 71st High- 
landers, formed one column, which was destined to attack 
Fort Napoleon ; Cameron with his regiment, and tlie 
remainder of the 71st, had orders to support the attack, 
and storm the teie-du-pont. Both columns were amply 
provided with scaling-ladders. As the troops descended 
a rtU of the sierra, in Indian file, about midnight, Mr. 



JOHN CAMERON, OF FASSIFERN, K.T.S. 61 

Irvine, a gentleman volunteer, left his ranks to obtain a 
draught of water. This was contrary to express orders ; 
and such was Cameron's strictness, that he dismissed him 
from the regiment on the instant, and tlie poor fellow 
was left alone among the mountains of Romangordo. 

Being proud of his own regiment, Cameron had a great 
jealousy of the 71st Highlanders ; and when the attack 
commenced, on some of their bullets, in the twilight and 
confusion, whistling over his own ranks, he called aloud — 

" Seventy- first ! what the devil are you about? Do 
you wish the ninety-second to return your fire ?" 

Port Napoleon was stormed in gallant style. Captain 
Candler, of the 50th, v/as shot through the head ; but 
the French were driven towards the tete-du-pont. Then 
Cameron entered it with them pell-mell, with ba3^onets 
charged, muskets clubbed, swords and sledge-hammers. 
But the commandant of Fort Ragusa, on the opposite 
side, cut the pontoon bridge, and thus the whole garrison 
of Fort Napoleon found the deep Tagus before them, and 
the foe behind. 

Eager to capture Ragusa, many of Cameron's men 
flung themselves into the river, and daringly swam across. 
Privates Gall and Somerville were the first men who 
brought over the pontoon bridge. On gaining possession 
of the platforms, which were litei'ally ankle-deep in 
brains and blood, the 1st brigade slued round the cannon 
upon the French, and blew their heads off in scores, as 
they crowded into the square of the little fortress, where 
the 71st Highlanders captured a standard of the Corps 
Etranger. 

The dead, 436 in number, were thrown into the ditch ; 
the ramparts, with eighteen cannon, were hurled over 
them ; the stone towers were blown up ; the barracks and 
storehouses burned down ; and the whole place laid bare. 
In the general pillage which ensued, a Highlander became 
mutinous to Cameron, who raised his claymore to cut him 
down ; but tiie descending blow Avas turned aside by a 
sergeant, named Taylor, who kindly interposed his pike 
between them. Even when the gust of passion passed 
away, Cameron could not forgive the afiront of Taylor's 



62 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

interference before his men, and was headstrong enough 
to resent it in the following manner : When the 
sergeants drew lots for the command of a firing party to 
shoot a deserter at Coria, Taylor escaped this hateful 
ballot, but nevertheless Cameron ordered him to take 
charge of the execution. Taylor gave him a glance full 
of reproach, and burst into tears, yet he obeyed, and shot 
the culprit dead. Then Cameron repented the casual 
malevolence which is sometimes to be found even yet 
among the Celts, when an affront has been given them. 
At Merida, he was pall-bearer during the grand military 
funeral generously bestowed on the commandant of 
Almarez, who had been slain there by an officer of the 
71st Highlanders, and who was buried with the honours 
due to a British officer of the same rank. 

Cameron's native dislike to receive orders from seniors, 
his jealousy of the 71st, and Old Half-hundred, involved 
him in many quarrels with Colonels Cadogan and Stuart, 
and even in an angry correspondence with Wellington. 
It was then currently rumoured in the Highland regi- 
ments, that the great Duke had some dislike to their 
nation. The Gordon Highlanders added, that he viewed 
coldly old Sir William Stuart, Fassifern, and Major 
Mitchell, from whom they averred that he withheld 
many honours to which they were entitled. What 
amount of truth these rumours contained, it is now im- 
possible to learn. High words ensued on one occasion 
between the colonel and his great leader, to whom he 
said : — 

" My Lord Marquis, thank God ! I am beholden to 
no man for my bread — not even to the service, for 1 have 
a comfortable home to retire to whenever I please." 

The real source of this bitterness of feeling is unknown; 
but it continued during the whole war. 

On one occasion his pride revolted at General Howard 
for keeping the regiment too long under arms before 
inspection ! and he sent Lieutenant Grant to the Briga- 
dier's billet with a brief message, "that the regiment 
awaited him." 

On another occasion, it chanced that by mistake ke 



JOHN CAMERONj OF PASSIFEEN, K.T.S. 65 

and a Spanish colonel were billeted on the same man- 
sion, and as it was thought too small to accommodate both, 
he resolved to turn out the Don who was already in pos- 
session of the premises. On Cameron arriving with the 
colours, which were borne by his cousin, Ewen Eoss, and 
another ensign, and were escorted by four sergeants with 
their pikes, the Spanish colonel appeared in the doorway 
with his Toledo drawn and pistols cocked. Fassifern drew 
his claymore. " Forward, gentlemen," said he ; " at all 
risks I command you to lodge the colours !" 

The sergeants charged with their pikes, and we know 
not how the affair might have ended, had not Villamur's 
corps of Spanish horse turned the corner of the street ; 
this forced the rash chieftain to parley with the cava- 
lier, and share his quarters in peace. 

After the night of blood at Almarez, Cameron and his 
Highlanders marched by Fuente del Maistre, Los Santos, 
the hill of Albuera, and many other places, bivouacking 
with their brigade wherever night found them, prepara- 
tory to the attack on the forts at Salamanca, and the 
battle there, which was fought, while Hill's division co- 
vered Lord Wellington's rear. After joining the grand 
army on these contested plains, the Highlanders were re- 
viewed by their great general. Rations had been served 
out that morning ; the sheep-heads had been assigned to 
the 92nd, and when they marched past by open column 
of companies, every sixth man carried a sheep's head in 
his left hand. 

When Wellington entered Madrid, the Highlanders of 
Cameron for one night occupied the Escuriel, in the chapel 
of which the remains of a king and queen of Scotland 
(Malcolm III. and St. Margaret) are said to lie, having 
been conveyed to Spain in 1560. After Cameron marched 
to Arar.juez, his cousin, Ewen Ross, had a narrow escape 
from a terrible death. Having been ordered to the rear 
with sick and wounded from the brigade, and having no 
less than twelve waggons-full of officers, he reached Bada- 
joz, after encountering many difficulties, and there found 
that various outrages committed by the detachment of Lieu- 
tenant H , of the 28th, were laid to the charge of 



64 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

his party, sucli as shooting and plundering the paisanos, 
robbing them of burros, wine, and provisions. Lack of 
Spanish prevented the gallant Highlander from explain- 
ing that he was not the guilty person ; and the INIarquis 
del Palacio, governor of Badajoz, illegally tried him by a 
Spanish court-martial, and unscrupulously sentenced him 
to death ! Then fearing to carry this sentence into exe- 
cution, he sent him, under an escort of Portuguese horse, 
to Elvas, where an English officer saved him from a 
rabble who were bent on his destruction, and he was en- 
abled to rejoin Cameron in safety. On this march he 
saved from starvation Mr. Irvine, the poor volunteer, 
whom he found in a state of destitution near Truxillo. 

Cameron and his Highlanders endured great misery on 
the disastrous retreat from Burgos. Deprivation of food 
reduced the poor men almost to skeletons ; their uniform 
was worn to rags ; many were barefooted, and shirtless. 
Undeterred by the cruel exhibition of a soldier hung daily 
at the head of the column (for of twenty men under sen- 
tence of death for plundering, one was thus sacrificed 
every day), the 92nd shot some wild pigs in a wood 
through which they passed. Big Diigald Campbell, one 
of their flivourite officers, drove his long claymore through 
the body of a boar which he pursued through the thicket, 
and claimed from some cazadores. This prize he shared 
with Cameron and other officers ; but the affair drew forth 
a most severe reprimand from head-quarters, and this 
was at a time when a duro was given for a handful of 
oats or nuts, and when some of the officei'S had no other 
food for six-and-thirty hours than a few mushrooms or 
acorns. 

Fassifern's regiment formed part of the small force 
which was left with General Howard to secure Welling- 
ton's retreat, by defending the old ruined town of Alba 
at the passage of the rapid Tormes. There the 50th, 
71st, and 92nd made a gallant stand on the 8th of No- 
vember, 1812. After a long and fatiguing march, and 
just when about to receive a little ration of dry bread — 
the first food after three days of starvation — the appear- 
ance of the whole pursuing French army under Jcseph 



JOHN CAMEROX, OF FASSIFERX, K.T.S. 65 

Bonaparte, summoned the brigade to man the old an«i 
shattered walls of Alba — a relic of the Moorish wai's — 
while the saj)pers undermined the bridge of the Tormes, 
Two green hills overlooked the town and river. Between 
these and the wall, within, pistol-shot of the 92nd High- 
landers, a French stafif-officer, mounted on a white charger. 
Lad the temerity to ride leisurely reconnoitring, and 
followed by an orderly on foot. Twenty Highlanders 
levelled their muskets to shoot this daring fellow, but 
the chivalric Cameron cried aloud : 

'• Kecover your arms there ! I will by no means permit 
an individual to be tired on !" 

This officer who acted so boldly, and thus escaped so- 
narrowly, proved to be no other than Marshal Soult, who,, 
in ten minutes after, ordered eighteen pieces of cannon up 
to the heights, from whence they poured 1300 rounds of 
shot and shell on the brave brigade of Howard. This- 
was endured until the 13th, by which time Cameron lost 
forty-two men killed and wounded. At daybreak, on the 
morning of the 14th, a despatch arrived from Wellington,, 
ilirecting Howard to abandon Alba, as the French cavalry,. 
3000 strong, had forded the river above the town and 
turned his flank. A Spanish garrison ^^'as left in the old 
castle of the Castigador de Flamencos — the walls were- 
abandoned, and the bridge blov/n up. Lieutenant John. 
Grant of the 92nd was the last officer who quitted the 
town, being left to bring off the sentinels, as the French 
entered, and he was struck by the stones as the mine under 
the bridge exploded, at the very heels of his party. 

Wellington's admirable foresight saved Howard's bri- 
gade, which retired to winter quarters at Coria, in Leon, 
when, with many other officers and soldiers. Colonel 
Stewart of the 50th, as brave a Scot as ever drew a 
sword, expired of exhaustion and fatigue. A soldier of 
the 50th carved a rude stone to mark where this old 
officer was laid. 

Refreshed by six months' rest in winter quarters at 
Banos, in a beautiful valley of Leon, overshadowed by 
high mountains, Cameron, after commanding the 1st 
brigade during General Foy's attack on Bejar, marched 

F 



66 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

with liis Highlanders, when the whole army advanced to 
turn the famous positions of Jourdan on the Ebro and 
Douro, and to meet him on the gieen plains of Yittoria, 
where, on the 21st of June, 1813, he again commanded 
the 1st brigade of Hill's division, and carried the heights 
of La Peubla, when the gallant Cadogan fell amid heaps, 
literally heaps, of his brave Highlanders. 

Sir William Stuart having ordered Cameron to secure 
the heights, added, " yield them to none without a written 
order from Sir Rowland Hill or myself, and defend them 
while you have a man remaining." On this Fassifern or- 
dered the pipers to strike up the " Camerons' Gathering," 
and the regiment advanced with great spirit and alacrity 
up the mountain side. 

After this victory, the most decisive of the Spanish 
war, Cameron pushed on with his brigade towards the Py- 
renees, beyond which the conqueror drove the French like 
a herd of sheep, and then garrisoned the heights by a 
chain of outposts, previous to besieging San Sebastian, 
and blockading Pampeluna. On this occasion the care of 
the important pass of Maya was entirely assigned to 
Oameron, with the 1st brigade, after it had crossed the 
Bidassoa, and skirmished with the routed French until 
darkness set in, on the 7th July. 

Cameron commanded this great outpost until the 25th 
of that month, when the French advanced to storm the 
heights under the Duke of Dalmatia, who had assumed the 
tcommand of Jourdan's discomfited host, and was directed 
to retrieve all its disasters by driving the British beyond 
the Ebro. Full of confidence and of hope, at least to 
relieve the two beleaguered fortresses, this brave marshal 
eent his legions against the various passes in the moun- 
tains which Wellington, who was then urging the siege 
of San Sebastian in person, had occupied by battalions 
and brigades. 

Cameron's force was encamped in the centre of a lonely 
gorge, and his outposts were far down the hillside in ad- 
vance ; and these, on Sunday the 25th, descried the divi- 
sion of General Drouet, 15,000 strong, advancing on the 
Toad that led ^rom Urdax. Coming on with great spirit. 



jrOHN CAMEROX, OP FASSIPERN, K.T.S. 67 

they drove in tlie three light companies of the >brigade 
(which Cameron had dispatched as skirmishers in front), 
and gained the high rock of Maya before the 2nd brigade 
of infantry could come to his support. His little band 
^^ere thus left to defend that steep and narrow pass 
against Jive times their number. On this fatal morning 
the strength of the Gordon Highlanders was only fifty- 
five staff, and 762 rank and file. 

To deceive the foe as to his -real strength, Cameron 
skilfully divided his Highlanders into two wings, in open 
columns of companies, thus giving the slender battalion 
the asj^ect of tivo regiments ; but this ruse was useless, as 
the traitor- muleteers, who, for the few weeks preceding, 
had been passing between the mountains and French out- 
posts, had made Soult fully .aware of the actual force left 
to defend the Pyrenees at every point. The momejit the 
action commenced, Fassifern detached the 50th to the 
right, where, after a desperate conflict, it was driven back 
and forced to leave the ridge. 

Under Major M'Pherson, Cameron then sent forward 
first the right wing, and then the left, of his brave High- 
landers. Then ensued one of the most appalling scenes of 
carnage recorded in the annals of that protracted war. 
The Highlanders stood like a rampart, in which, however, 
frightful gaps were made by the bullets of the French, 
who came on, in one vast mob, shouting and brandishing 
their eagles. Separating the 1st and 2nd brigades, they 
descended upon the pass of Maya from one flank, while a 
fresh division poured upon its front from the Urdax road. 
Cameron, who had repeatedly ordered a charge, which waa 
unheard amid the roar of the musketry, then made the 
whole fall back gradually upon the rock of Maya ; a move- 
ment which was slowly and desperately covered by the left 
wingsof the 7 1st Highland Light Infantry and of the Gordon 
Highlanders, which, by relieving each other, drenched in 
blood every inch of tlie ground j and there these gallant 
men defended the rock for ten successive hours, until — . 
just when ammunition was falling short — the brigade of 
General Barnes arrived to their succour, and Lieutenant- 
Oeneral the Hou. Sir William Stuart, a fine old soldiei 
f2 



68 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

whom all the troojis loved well, ordered Cameron's brigade 
not to charge ; but, exasperated by the slaughter they had 
endured, they rushed upon the French with the bayonet, 
and the Gordon Highlanders, '^for the first time disre- 
garded orders, and not only charged, hut led the charge,'' 
and recovered every foot of ground as far as the pass from 
whicli they had been driven. In this headlong advance 
the pipers played the " Haughs of Cromdale," and the line 
v/as led by Captain Seton of Pitmedden, bonnet and clay- 
more in hand. But the slaughter in their ranks was 
terrible, for 19 officers and 324 rank and file were killed, 
wounded, and missing. Among the wounded were — 
Cameron, who was shot through the thigh, and forced to 
leave the field ; Major Mitchel, who succeeded him ; 
Captains Holmes, and Bevan, who died when his arm was 
taken out of the socket, and Ronald M 'Donald of Coul ; 
Lieutenants Winchester, who commanded the light com- 
pany; Donald M'Donald, Chisholm, Durie, M'Pherson, 
and Fife, who, after having one ball turned by a button, 
and another by his watch, was struck down at last ; 
Gordon, Kerr Ross, and John Grant, who was shot 
through the side. Among the ensigns were Thomas and 
George Mitchell, Ewen Kennedy (one of Cameron's 
Lochaber men), who bled to death on the field, and Alaster 
M'Donald of Dalchosnie, a youth of eighteen, who after- 
wards expired of a wound in the head, and was buried by 
four of his brother officers in a hole outside the town- 
gate of Vittoria, where Holmes said a short prayer over 
his grave. 

Sir William Napier, in his history, thus alludes to 
Fassifern and the two regiments of Highlanders : 
*'And that officer (Lieutenant-Colonel Cameron), still 
holding the pass of Maya with the left wings of the 71st 
and 92nd Regiments, brought their right wings and 
the Portuguese guns into action, and thus maintained 
the fight ; but so dreadful was the slaughter, that 
it is said the advancing enemy was actually stopped 

by the heaped- up mass of dead and dying 

The stern valour of the 92nd would have graced T/ter- 
mopylcey 



JOHN CAMERON, OF FASSIFERN, K.T.S. 69 

Strange to say, Lieutenant Gordon died at EdinLurgh 
sixteen years after, under the hands of a surgeon who 
was extracting the ball received at Maya, and he lies 
now in the Calton burying-gronnd. Two balls grazed 
Cameron, but the third pierced tlie iieshy part of his right 
thigh. In great agony he called to M'Millan, who slung 
his musket, rushed to his side, and led his horse by the 
bridle out of the field. " The gallant Cameron, who has 
so frequently bled for his country," says the Pilot of 12th 
October, 1813, '-'received three shots in his person, his 
horse received three, and three more were found in his 
cloak, which was stra]:»ped before his saddle in the usual 
manner." He lost so much blood, that, being unable to 
reach Vittoria, which was a hundred miles distant, and 
to which all the wounded were ordered to repair, he re- 
mained at an intermediate village until the scar healed 
and he could rejoin the regiment at E-oncesvalles, after i^ 
had been engaged between Lizasso and Eguaros, and o 
the heights of Donna Maria, having in both aifairs 120 
officers and men killed and wounded. Captain Scton 
brought the regiment out of the field : thus the Speaker 
of the House of Commons, on the 24th of June, might 
well say that the Spaniards of future times would point 
with pride to the places " where a Stuart made his stand, 
and where the best blood of Scotland was shed in their 
defence." For his bravery at the Pyrenees, his Majesty 
was pleased to permit Cameron to bear upon his shield 
the word Maya. 

Prom this period he was incessantly engaged in all the 
operations along the French Pyrenees, in daily skirmishes, 
and the capture of entrenched camps. The country was 
now covered by snow, and the troops endured many 
privations, which Sir William Stuart (brother of Lord 
Galloway) did all in his power to alleviate, by issuing 
extra allowances of rum, which won him the cognomen of 
Auld Grog Willie ; and his popularity was so great among 
all the troops, that his appearance was always hailed by a 
noisy cheer, and shouts of " God bless you, Sir William 1'* 
Lord Wellington disliked this, and compelled the general 
to refund to Government all those extra allowances of 



70 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

rum s<jrved out to the poor soldiers amid the snows of 
that severe winter on the PjTenees. 

Cameron, who had long remarked that those officers of 
his 1 st Battalion who became by promotion members of 
the 2nd, and should consequently be at home, were always 
unfortunate if the corps were engaged, before the passage 
of the Nive ordered four of them to leave immediately 
for Britain, when the troops were about to cross the 
river. 

" God bless you, gentlemen," said he, as they bade him 
adieu ; " I am now tired of war, and may well wish I 
were going with you." 

But, mounted on his charger, he was the first to cross 
the Nivelle, below Ainhoe, when his daring Highlanders 
were ordered to storm the strong redoubt in rear of the 
village, where they drove out the French and took pos- 
session of their huts. Here his favourite piper was killed 
by his side ; and with his own hand he strove to raise him, 
exclaiming, " I would rather lose twenty men than have 
lost you !" He led them through the Nive at Cambo ; and 
in the attack upon those heavy columns which occu- 
pied the ground between the entrenched camp at Bayonne 
and the road to St. Jean Pied-de-Port, he fought valiantly 
at the battle of St. Pierre. There (Napier relates), at one 
period of the day, the overwhelming cannonade and 
musketry drove the 92nd in rear of the hamlet ; how- 
ever, on being succoured by their old comrades, the 50th, 
and Ashworth's Ca9adores, they re-formed behind St. 
Pierre, and " then their gallant colonel, Cameron, once 
more led them down the road, with colours flying and 
pipes playing, resolved to give the shock to whatever 
stood in their way. The 92nd was but a small clump 
compared to the heavy mass in front ;" but Fassifern led 
them on as of old, and the heavy mass rolled before their 
bayonets like mist before the wind. Four times that day 
he led them to brilliant charges, and four times the foe 
was driven back. Cameron had 13 officers and 173 
rank and file killed and wounded ; but he obtained an 
Jonorary badge, inscribed with the word Nive. 

After the attack on the enenw at Hellette, in the lower 



JOHN CAMERON, OF FASSIFERN, K.T.S. 71 

•Pyrenees, where General Harispe was driven out, and 
forced to retire to Meharin ; and after that gallant con- 
flict on the heights of Garris, where Cameron lost Seton of 
Pitmedden, and twelve other brave fellows, the scene of 
his next achievement was the pretty village of Arriverette^ 
on the right bank of Gave de Mauleon, where the French 
endeavoured to destroy a wooden bridge, to prevent 
Wellington from following them ; but a ford being dis- 
covered above it, Cameron boldly threw himself into the- 
stream, at the head of his Highlanders, crossed under a 
fire of artillery, stormed the village, drove bavk the 
enemy, and, by securing the bridge, enabled the whole- 
troops to pass. For this eminent service his Majesty 
granted to him, as an additional crest of honourable 
augmentation, a Highlander of the 92nd foot, " armed 
and accoutred, up to the middle in water, his dexter hand 
grasping a broadsword, in his sinister a banner, inscribed, 
* 92nd,' within a wreath of laurel, all proper, and on an 
escroll above, the word Arriverette.''^ But Cameron had 
now a fresh cause of displeasure at his great leader; for, 
on applying to him, through Lieutenant- General Lord 
Niddry, for leave to inscribe Arriverette upon the regi- 
mental colours, Wellington declined, without affording 
any satisfactory reason. He acknowledged, in his reply, that 
"the 92nd forded the river, and took the village against 
a superior force of the enemy, in most gallant style ;" but 
added that it was beneath their reputation to explain whij 
they should not have Arriverette on their colours. This 
ambiguous reply Cameron considered another afiiont, and 
never forgot or forgave it. 

He received an honorary badge for his conduct at the 
battle of Orthez; and on the 2nd March, 1814, distin- 
guished himself at the capture of Aire so prominently, 
that George III. desired him to bear embattled in chief 
above the old cognizance of Lochiel (as the heraldic 
record above quoted has it), " a representation of the 
town of Aire, in allusion to his glorious services on the 
2nd March last, when, after an arduous and sanguinar'' 

* " Eecord :" Lyon Court, Edinburgh. 



72 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

conflict, he succeeded in forcing a superior body of the 
enemy to abandon the said town, and subsequently had 
the honour to receive an address from the inhabitants, 
•expressive of their gratitude for the maintenance of di- 
cipline, by which he had saved them from phmder and 
destruction." The address, which was so complimentary 
to his distinguished regiment, was signed by M. Codroy, 
the mayor, in the name of the people. 

From thence he accompanied the troops in that hot 
and brilliant pursuit, which did not cease until the 
French evacuated Toulouse, and the white banner of 
Bourbon was displayed upon its walls. The seizure of 
Paris by the allies, the abdication of Bonaparte and pro- 
clamation of peace, the restoration of Louis XVIII., 
rapidly followed, and the Peninsular army was ordered 
home. 

In the last skirmish near Toulouse, Cameron had his 
favourite horse shot under him ; and, though there was a 
liot fire of musketry sweeping the place where it lay, 
M'Millan deliberately unbuckled the girths of the saddle, 
:and brought it away with the cloak and holsters, saying, 
that '• though the French were welcome to the dead car- 
<;ase, they should not get the good accoutrements." 

When encamped at Blanchefort, two miles from Ber- 
yl eaux, Cameron obtained his brevet colonelcy on the 4tli 
June, 1814 ;* and when cantoned at Pouillac, his High- 
landers joyfully received the route for Scotland, and on 
-the 17th July embarked on board H.M.S. Norge, which, 
however, by a change of destination, landed them at the 
Cove of Cork. 

While his regiment, now reduced to one battalion, vas 
in Ireland, Cameron returned, on leave, to his native gleu 
at Fassifern. 

Wellington had then won all the honours a subject 
-could attain : patents of nobility, baronetcy, and knight- 
hood were issued for generals of division and brigade ; 
Orders of the Garter, the Bath, and the Crescent were 
unsparingly lavished among the heroes of the war ; but 

* Note of his services fiim^slied to author from Horse Guards. 



JOHN CAMERON, OF FASSIFERN, K.T.S. 73 

the "biave Cameron, notwithstanding all his services — 
though he had been almost riddled by musket-shot, and 
had served in Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Spain, Portugal, 
Egypt, and Prance, at home and abroad, for twenty-one 
years — found that the Duke of Wellington had omitted 
his name in the list of officers recommended for honorary 
distinctions. He visited London, and complained to the 
Duke of York, who offered to have him gazetted as an 
additional Cross of the Bath. 

" I beg your highness will excuse me," said he, " for as 
my name has been omitted, I will not accept of it now." 

" Sir," replied the duke, " do you know to whom you 
are speaking ?" 

'•' A prince of that royal blood for which I have too 
■often shed my own ; but am yet willing to do so again. 
And I have the honour to wish your Highness good 
morning." 

In this haughty fashion he quitted the Horse Guards, 
but was afterwards prevailed upon to write to Wellington. 

Justly indignant, he wrote a fiery remonstrance to the 
duke, who was then at Vienna, and who, in one of his 
letters to Earl Batlmrst, dated 5th February, mentions 
it as a somewhat imprudent production; but his Grace 
replied to the following effect : — 

"Vienna, 5th February, 1815. 

" Sir, — I received your letter of the 8th January, thiH 
morning, and I have transmitted it to the Secretary of 
State, with my recommendation of you. 

" The Government fixed the occasions on which medals 
should be granted to the army, and framed the rules, 
according to which I was bound to make the lists of 
those to whom they were to be granted ; and not having 
received their orders to recommend for medals, for the 
service at Arroya del Molinos, Alba de Tormes, Bejar, 
Aire, or at Arriverette, it was impossible for me to recom- 
mend you for a medal at Fuentes d'Ouoro, or in the 
Pyrenees, according to the rules by which I was bound 
to make out the lists of those I recommended. I have 
iit»t an accurate recollection of the lists for Bayonne, the 



74 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

Nivelle, Ortliez, and Toulouse ; but of this I am very 
certain, that I have never failed to do your services justice, 
as it was my earnest desire to render it to every oflS.cer 
and soldier I had the honour of commanding. 

" I have nothing to say . about the selection of the 
officers recently appointed Knights Commanders of the 
Order of the Bath. I did not know their names till I 
saw the list of them in the Gazette. If you had known 
these facts, I hope that the same spirit of justice by which 
I have always been animated, would have induced you 
to spare me the pain of reading the reproaches and charges 
of injustice contained in your letter ; and that you would 
have defended me in the 92nd Regiment ; and would 
have shown them that the regulation, and not I, deprived 
you of those marks of honour which they wished to see 
you obtain. As these facts are in the knowledge of every- 
body, it is scarcely possible to believe that you were not 
aware of them, and I attribute the harshness of your 
letter solely to the irritation which you naturally feel in 
considering your own case. However, the expression of 
this irritation, however unjust towards me, and unpleasant 
to my feelings, has not made me forget the services which 
you and your brave corps rendered upon every occasion 
on which you were called upon ; and, although I am 
afraid it is too late, I have recommended you in the 
strongest terms to the Secretary of State ; and have the 
honour to be, &c., Wellington. 

"To Lieut.- Colonel Cameron, 92nd Eegiment." 

Cameron saw there was something at least generous in 
the tone of this letter, and he sent a memorial for the 
Order of the Bath ; for the medal which had been given 
to officers engaged at Fuentes d'Onoro, and also for the 
Order of the Tower and Sword. Wellington replied as 
follows : — 

"Vienna, Febniary, 1815. 

" Sir, — I hav'e received your letter of the 13th January, 
and the copy of your memorial ; in answer to which I can 
only inform you, that I had no concern whatever in the 
selection of the officers of the army lately under my com- 



JOHN CAMERON, OF FASSIFERN, K.T.S. 75' 

inand to be Kniglits Commanders of the Order of the 
Bath ; and as I see that the number limited is filled, I 
am quite certain that no application I can make will 
answer any purpose. I will inquire about your claim ta 
a medal for Fuentes d'Onoro. I have recommended you 
for the Portuguese Order of the Tower and Sword ; and 
have the honour, &c., Wellington. 

"To Lieut.- Colonel Camez-on, 92nd Regiment." 

Fassifern received the Portuguese order, but he was too- 
much of a Highlander to forget the first unmerited afiront, 
of being omitted or forgotten ; and now we can but hope 
that this omission of the great duke was, at least, an 
unwitting one. 

Like every Highlander of the old school, and like 
many of the present day, Cameron believed in the Taisch, 
or Second Sight ; he had one other fancy, a dread of being 
on the water, or at sea ; thus he who would face without 
flinching a shower of grape or hedge of bayonets, has been 
known to grow pale at the rocking of a small boat. 

When at home, on leave, in 1815, he visited Mor'ar, in 
Lochaber, the seat of Colonel Simon M'Donald, a retired 
officer who had joined the 92nd at their first muster in 
1793. One day when passing along a corridor together, 
and about to enter the dining-room, M'Donald started 
back, with his eyes fixed in their sockets, his face pale as 
death, and his limbs trembling. 

" In God's name, what is the matter Mor'ar ?" asked 
Cameron. 

" Nothing," replied M'Donald, after a pause, and gi*eatly 
agitated ; " nothing." 

'' You Jiave seen something, Simon," continued Cameron, 
impressively, for he knew, or believed, that the gift of 
the Taisch was hereditary in the family of Mor'ar. 

" Well, then, I have seen something, Fassifern," said 
M'Donald, passing a hand over his eyes with a troubled 
expression ; " but do not ask me what it was." 

Mor'ar was thoughtful and sad for a long time after,, 
and it was currently believed that he had seen some vision 
of his old friend's approaching end ; for the day- dreams 



76 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

of the Highland seers are always fraught with death and 
son-ow. Immediately after this, war broke out again ; 
Bonaparte quitted Elba, returned to Paris, and resumed 
the reins of government, while Louis XVIII. withdrew 
to Ghent. 

Wellington once more took the field, and the 92nd 
Highlanders were ordered to Flanders, with the other 
forces under his command. Cameron hastened to rejoin, 
in Ireland, where the regiment was still stationed. Its 
second battalion, under Lamond of that ilk, had been dis- 
banded at Edinburgh, all save twelve sergeants and 174 
soldiers, who, with five officers, marched to Portpatrick 
to join the head-quarters ; and on this route an interest- 
ing episode occurred. 

As the Highlanders, with pipes playing, marched past 
a little wayside cottage, an old and white-haired man 
came out to see them, and was immediately recognised as 
their brave and fixvourite general in Spain, Sir William 
Stuart, who, neglected by the Government, had retired 
there to brood over his unrequited services. A hearty 
<jheer welcomed "Auld Grog Willie'' Then the brave 
Stuart burst into tears, and wept like a child. The de- 
tachment was formed into line, and inspected by him ; 
perhaps the last military duty he ever performed, for 
rumour says that he died soon after of a broken heart. 

Cameron embarked with his Highlanders at Cork, for 
Ostend, from whence, with eight battalions under his 
•command, viz., the third battalion of the Royal Scots ; 
the 28th, 32nd, 42nd, 44th, 79th, 92nd, and third bat- 
talion of the 95th Rifle corps, he marched, vid Ghent and 
Bruges, to Brussels, where, on the 3rd June, 1815, his 
Highlanders, with the brigade to which they belonged — 
"the 5th or Sir Denis Pack's — were reviewed by Welling- 
ton, then a field-marshal. In the 5th corps were also 
the 1st Royal Scots, the 42nd Highlanders, and 44th Re- 
giment. 

When Pack's brigade was under arms in the Park of 
Brussels, the Duchess of Richmond, who had been Lady 
Charlotte Gordon, passed in an open carriage along the 
line. Colonel MacQuarrie, of the 42nd, gallantly made 



JOHN CAMERON, OF FASSIFERN, K.T.S. 77 

his Highlanders iwesent arms to lier, as the Duke of 
Gordon's daughter, while the pipes played a salute ; but 
on her approaching the 92nd, Cameron, still true to his 
old feud with her brother the marquis, gave the order — 
" Gordon Highlanders, order arms — stand at ease !" and 
thus coldly was the fair duchess received by the clan 
regiment of her father. 

On the 12th Juue, Napoleon left Paris at the head of 
his brave army, and the British poured from Brussels. 
*' The 42nd and 92nd Highlanders marched through the 
Place Royale and the Pare," says the '•' Circumstantial 
Detail ;" " one could not but admire their fine ap})ear- 
ance, their steady, military demeanour, with their pipes 
playing before them, and the beams of the rising sun 
shining upon their glittering arms. On many a highland 
hill and in many a lowland valley will the deeds of these 
brave men be remembered. It was impossible to witness 
such a scene unmoved." 

It was at four o'clock, on a bright midsummer morn- 
ing, when the Highlanders of Pack's brigade marched 
through the Namur gate, and, mounted on a black Spanish 
horse, Fassifern was at the head of the 92nd. Gallant 
MacQuarrie led the Royal Highlanders. They weie in 
the division of Sir Thomas Picton, and, about two o'clock 
in the day, came within range of the French artillery in 
front of GemaiDpe, near a farm-house, now immortalised 
as Les Quatre Bras, where the main road from Charleroi 
to Brussels is crossed by that which leads from Nivelle to 
Namur. This was doomed to be, as his friend Mor'ar 
had, perhaps, too surely foreseen, the scene of Cameron's 
last achievement. 

The 92nd were ordered to line a ditch in front of the 
Namur road, on the left flank of the farmhouse ; Wel- 
lington took his station near, and a hot cannonade swept 
over them. The proud and fiery Cameron, still pursuing 
his feud with the duke, never deigned to take the 
slightest notice of him, but allowed him to pass and 
repass his post without according either salute or recog- 
nising. At four in the afternoon the Black Brunswick 
which failed in a charge in front of this position, and 



78 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

their brave prince fell by a mortal wound. Inspired witb 
new ardonr, a body of French cavalry, which had 
taken the colours of the 69th, or South Lincolnshire 
E-egiment, swept forward, and then the 92nd, the moment 
the Brunswickers were past, poured an oblique but deadly 
volley upon the foe, piling men and horses breast high 
before the roadway. Attended by one soldier, his ser- 
vant, M. Bourgoyne, an officer of these horse chasseurs, 
clad in light green uniform, tried to escape round the 
flank of the 92nd. His brass helmet had fallen off, and 
displayed his curly black hair ; he was a handsome young 
man, and waved his sabre, repeatedly shouting " Vive 
VEmpereur,'' Cameron evinced no disposition to molest this 
gallant Frenchman, but Wellington exclaimed, " 92nd, 
d — n it, do not let that fellow escape." Fifty or sixty men 
then fired at him ; but, such was the speed of his horse, 
the smoke, confusion, and inutility of firing with fixed 
bayonets, that he escaped all their shots, and caracoled 
his horse along the whole line of the 92nd. Then private 
Harold Chisholm, and a corporal of the 42nd Highlanders 
(who had lost his regiment and joined Cameron), unfixed 
their bayonets, knelt down, fired, and the chasseur fell to 
the earth, while his charger limped away on three legs. 
M. Bourgoyne had been shot through both ankles. Se- 
veral Hanoverians now rushed forward to bayonet him, 
but he was rescued by Lieutenants Chisholm and Ewen 
Boss, who had him borne to the rear. Lieutenant Hector 
Innes encountered his servant, who was run through 
from behind by a Belgian lancer and slain. M. Bour- 
goyne was afterwards sent to Brussels ; and his family in 
Paris expressed to Lieutenant Winchester, and other 
Highland officers, their deep gratitude for his preserva- 



tion 



Again the chasseurs charged, and again they were 
repulsed; while a fire of cannon and musket-shot was 
thinning fast the ranks of Cameron. Forming under 
cover of these attacks, the French infantry, flanked by 
artillery, possessed themselves of a two-storied house, 
and in heavy column advanced beyond it with great 
spirit. At that moment, 



JOHX CAMEEOX, OF FASSIFERN, K.T.S. 79 

" 92nd !" exclaimed the Duke of Wellington, waving 
his cocked hat, " prepare to charge." 

Fassifern raised his bonnet, set spurs to his horse, the 
whole regiment sprang over the ditch which bounded the 
road, and with bayonets charged, dashed through the 
smoke upon the enemy, and routed them. Officers and 
men fell fast on every side ; but on went the 92nd until 
the gable of the two-storied house at the corner of the 
Charleroi road broke the centre of their line. Then they 
formed up in two wings, rank entire, with the house in 
the centre ; and Cameron sent forward his cousin Ewen 
Ross, with the light company, into a wood of olives to 
skirmish, where he received a severe wound in the groin. 
At that time the grape-shot of the French artillery was 
sweeping the corn-field between the wood and the farm- 
house, and shredding away the ripe ears like flakes of 
snow in the wind. A body of French, who occupied 
the upper story, were firing briskly from the windows ; 
and others who lined a thick thorn hedge, defended 
the avenues to the building. 

Here it was that the brave Cameron, of Fassifern, fell ; 
but the accounts of his death, as related by Siborne and 
others, are not strictly correct in detail. He had led his 
Highlanders close to the hedge, when a shot from the 
house passed through his belly, entering on the left side, 
and passing out on the right, tearing the intestines, and 
inflicting a mortal wound. At the same moment his 
horse sank under him, pierced by four musket balls. 

The regiment gave a wild cheer, burst in the gates of 
the garden, and fearfully was he avenged by the charged 
bayonet and clubbed musket; but ere this Captain 
William Grant, Lieutenants Chisholm, Becher, and 
MTherson were killed, and soon after were barbarously 
stripped by the French. Nineteen officers of the 92nd 
were wounded, and 280 rank and file killed and wounded. 
The aged mother of Chisholm received a widow's pension 
from the Government, and Campbell, the adjutant, brought 
his claymore and watch home to her in Strathglass, as 
mementos of that dark day at Les Quatre Bras. 

'' The warlike and lamented Colonel Cameron," says liis 



80 THE CAVALIERS OF FOUTUNE. 

cousin Lieutenant Ewen Koss (92nd), who was wounded 
on that day by his side, and whose letter is now before 
nic, " Cameron, than whom there was not a braver or 
better officer in the best or bravest of armies, was left to 
tJie chance care of his orderly sergeant, William Grant, 
who with a private of the 4th company led him carefully 
and slowly to a square of office houses at Quatre Bras, 
His horse being perforated by four musket balls, could 
carry him no farther, and was then shot. The colonel 
was then carried in a blanket to Gemappe by Sergeant 
Grant, Colin Mackenzie the drum-major, two drummei-s 
named MacLean, and three MacRaes belonging to the 
band." 

Ewen M'Millan and another Highlander carried Came- 
ron into what the soldiers not inaptly named the hloochj 
hospital at Gemappe, where his wound was at once pro- 
nounced to be mortal. On the position being abandoned, 
in his hereditary hatred and horror of the French, he ex- 
pressed great dread of being left to die in their hands ; 
and by nine in the evening his faithful and sorrowing 
foster-brother procured a common cart, the only vehicle 
to be had, and placed him in it with Ensign Angus 
M'Donald, who was also severely wounded, and conveyed 
them towards Brussels. On the way Cameron asked if 
the enemy had been defeated 1 M'Millan answered •' yes,'' 
though such was not the case, but the poor fellow's heart 
was ready to burst. 

" Defeated — then I die happy !" said Cameron ; "but, 
oh ! I hope my dear native country will believe that I 
have served her faithfully." 

After this the power of language failed him ; but An- 
gus ]M'Donald (who afterwards died from the efiect of his 
own wound) related that he heard him praying fervently 
in Gaelic, and in whispers. He was sinking liist. As 
the cart passed near where his cousin Boss lay wounded, 
the latter sent his servant, Angus Sutherland, to inquire 
how he was ; but Cameron's speech was gone — he could 
only shake his head mournfully, without replying ; and 
just as the cart entered the village of Waterloo, he laid 
his head on tiie breast of the brave and good M'Millaii, 



JOJN CAMERON, OF FASSIFERN, K.T.S. 61 

on wliose arm he had reclined, and expired without a 
sigh.^ 

His faithful follower conveyed the body in by the ]S"a- 
mur gate, through which Cameron had that morning rid- 
den forth at the head of his Highlanders, and took it 
straight to the billet they had occupied in Brussels. As 
he was obliged to rejoin the regiment without delay for 
the coming conflict at V7"aterloo, he made a rough deal 
ooffin, and in this placed the body of his master, brother, 
and friend — for Cameron had been all these three to the 
poor Highland private ; and thus he interred him, still in 
his full uniform, by the side of the King's Avenue, on the 
Ghent road, the Allee Yerte. This was on the evening of 
Saturday, the 17th of June. The body was conveyed to 
its hastily-made tomb, in a common cart, for poor Ewen 
could afford nothing better ; and the only persons who 
accompanied him were the landlord of the billet, an honest 
Belgian, and three wounded Highlanders, who, with their 
open seal's, had tottered out of Brussels to pay the last 
tribute to him they loved so well, and had followed so long. 

" Your lordships will see in the enclosed lists," says 
Wellington, in a dispatch to the Treasury, dated Orville, 
25th June, " the names of some most valuable officers 
lost to His Majesty's service. Among them, I cannot 
avoid to mention Colonel Cameron, of the 92nd Regiment, 
and Colonel Sir H. Ellis of the 23rd, to whose conduct I 
have frequently called your lordships' attention, and who 
at last fell, distinguishing themselves at the head of the 
brave troops which they commanded. Notwithstanding 
the glory of the occasion, it is impossible not to lament 
Buch men, both on account of the public and as friends." 

Such was the eulogium of Wellington ! 

When Cameron was lying dead in the hospital of 
Gemappe, there was found in the pocket of his Highland 
regimentals a touching memento, illustrative of his charac- 
ter, and more honourable even than the trophies of battlo 
which he bore on his breast ; viz., a pocket-book, con- 
taining the names of all the Highland soldiers who had 
come with him from his father's lands and from Lochaber ; 
marking those whom he had promoted, and those who 

G 



82 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

were dead ; for he counted many of them as his clansmeii 
and kindred, and had ever looked after the interests and 
•welfare of them all as if they had been the children of his 
own hearth, and he had carried this list with him in all 
his battles, for it was dated at Alexandria, in Egypt, 24th 
September, 1801. 

A captain of an English regiment was buried near him ; 
and there in that lonely place the graves lay undisturbed 
imtil the month of April, 1816. In that year the colo- 
nel's brother, Captain Peter Cameron, of the Balcarris, 
came to Brussels, accompanied by Ewen M'Millan, who 
led him to the well-remembered place, where the graves 
lay, near three trees at a corner of the A116e Yerte. The 
colonel's remains were exhumed, placed within another 
coffin, and brought to Leith ; from whence a king's ship 
conveyed them to his native Lochaber, where a grand 
Highland funeral was prepared. 

From Fassifern the remains of the colonel were borne 
for five miles, on the shoulders of his friends and clansmen, 
to the old kirkyard of Kilmalie, where, in presence of 
3000 Highlanders, his aged father, then verging on his 
eightieth year, laid his head in the gi'ave a second time, 
while the pipes played a lament ; and now he sleeps in 
his native earth by the tomb of the MacLauchlans, the 
Leine Ghrios of Locheil. Donald Cameron, his chief, was 
in attendance, with Barra, Barcaldine, and Glencoe, and 
seventy gentlemen of the clans dined in honour of the oc- 
casion, at the Inn of Maryburgh. 

Old Highlanders yet tell how sadly and how solemnly 
on that day the march of GUle Chriosd rang in the great 
glen of Caledonia, and yet remember the dirge composed 
on that occasion by Ailean DaU, or " Blind Allan," the 
bard of the chieftain of Glengarry — perhaps the last of 
the family bards in the Scottish Highlands. 

In consideration of his son's brilliant services, the vene- 
rable Ewen of Fassifern received a baronetcy, and in Kil- 
malie a monument has been raised above the grave of the 
hero of Arriverette. Its epitaph is from the pen of Sir 
Walter Scott, and is remarkable for the elegance of its 
expression ; — 



I 



JOHN CAMERON, OF FASSIFERN, K.T.S. 8$ 

"Sacred to the memory of Colonel John Cameron, 
eldest son of Ewen Cameron of Fassifern, Bart., whose^ 
mortal remains, transported from the field of glory where 
he died, rest here with those of his forefathers. During 
twenty years of active military service, with a spirit which 
knew no fear, and shunned no danger, he accompanied or 
led, in marches, sieges, and battles, the 92 nd Regiment of 
Scottish Highlanders, always to honour and always to 
victory ; and at length, in the 42nd year of his age, upon 
the memorable 16tli June, 1815, was slain in command of 
that corps, while actively contributing to achieve the de- 
cisive victory of Waterloo, which gave peace to Europe. 
Thus closing his military career with the long and event- 
ful struggle, in which his services had been so often dis- 
tinguished j he died, lamented by that unrivalled general, 
to whose long train of success he had so often contributed ; 
by his country, from which he had repeatedly received 
marks of the highest consideration, and by his sovereign, 
who graced his surviving family with those marks of 
honour which could not follow, to this place, him whom 
they were designed to commemorate. Reader, call not his 
fate untimely, who, thus honoured and laTnented, closed a 
life of fame hy a death of glory /'' 

Few of Cameron's old comrades now sui'vive. I know 
of only three officers and four privates living of the regi- 
ment which, between the 27th August, 1799, and the 18tli 
June, 1815, had lost, in killed and wounded, 117 officers and 
1634 men. After being discharged, Ewen M'Millan (who 
could never learn one word of English) died, in 1840, at 
Callart, the seat of Cameron's brother, and he now sleeps 
by his old master's side at Kilmalie. He it is whose me- 
m.ory Scott has embalmed in his " Dance of DeaJth^^ and — 

"Who for many a day 
Had followed stout and stem, 
Where through battles, rout, and reel, 
Storm of shot and hedge of steel. 
Led the grandson of Lochiel, 

Valiant Fassifern ! 

Though steel and shot he leads no more^ 
Low laid 'mid friends' and foemen's gore 

g2 



8i THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

But long his native lake's wild shore, 
And Suinart rough, and high Ardgower, 

And Morven long and tell ; 

And proud Bennevis hear with awe. 
How, upon Bloody Quatrd Bras, 
Brave Cameron heard the wild hurrah 

Of conquest, as he fell !" 

Kiddled with wounds, Colonel DoDald McDonald of Inch, 
Knight of St. Vladimir, died in 1830, and is interred at 
Edinburgh ; Lieutenant Winchester died there in 1846. 
Captain Campbell died, by leaping over a window, with 
pistol in each hand, to chastise a person who had in- 
nlted him ; some have died as emigrants among the 
wilds of the far West ; many more are lying near Uppark, 
in Jamaica, where the close-ranked headstones show where 
1300 of the Gordon Highlanders are sleeping far from 
their native hills ; and now Paymaster Gordon, and Lieu- 
tenants Eweu Ross, John Grant, and Alexander Gordon 
alone survive to w^ear the war decoration. 



SIB SAMUEL GREIO. 8S 



k Bmnd §rag. 



Sir Samuel Greig, Governor of Cronstadt, Admiral oi 
all the Russias, and commonly called the Father' of the 
Kussian Navy, was a Scotsman of humble but respecta- 
ble parentage, and was born at the ancient seaport town 
of Inverkeithing, in Fifeshire, on the 30th of November^, 
1735.* He was educated by the parochial schoolmastefj 
who lived long to boast of his pupil, for the Domini''^: 
would seem to have been still alive when the old statis- 
tical account of Scotland was published in 1794. 

When very young, Samuel Greig entered the British 
navy, and at an early age obtained the rank of lieutenant. 
In 1759 he served with the fleet of Admiral Sir Edward 
Hawke, C.B. (afterwards Lord Hawke), when blockading 
the harbour of Brest, where a fine French fleet lay, under 
the pennant of the Marquis de Conflans. At that time 
a double invasion of Britain (one by the way of Scotland, 
the other ^on the coast of England) was threatened ; but 
Commodore Boys blocked up Dunkirk, and Bodney bom- 
barded Havre-de-Grace, while the French transports and 
flat-bottomed boats lay inactive in Brest, with the fleet 
of M. de Conflans ; till a violent storm in autumn, having 
driven the ships of Sir Edward Hawke into Torbay, the 
marquis put to sea with twenty-one sail of the line and 
four frigates, and threw all England into consternation. 

With twenty sail of the line, Hawke left Torbay, and 
came up with the French fleet between Belleisle and 

* His father was a seafaring man. In the Edinburgh Courantf 
24th June, 1761. was the following notice: "The Thistle, Capt, 
Charles Greig, of Inverl^eithing, bound for St. Petersburg, pass-ed 
the Sound on the 6th instant." In Eussia, the admiral bore the 
name of Samuel Oarlovitch Greig {i.e. the son of Charles). 



^6 THE CAVALIEES OP FORTUNE. 

CJape Quiberon, close in on the coast of France, and in 
the desperate conflict which ensued, "young Greig," 
though a subaltern, is said to " have eminently distin- 
guished himself." The battle began at two o'clock, p.m., 
on the 20th of November. 

Sir Edward, in the Royal George, 110, lay alongside 
De Conflans in t\ie'Sol&il Royale, 80, which was soon 
<1 riven on shore and burned. He then lay alongside the 
Thesee, and sent her to the bottom by one broadside. 
La Superhe shared the same fate ; the Juste was sunk off 
the mouth of the Loire ; the Hero was burned ; and thus 
M. de Conflans was totally defeated. Nothing saved the 
rest of his fleet from irretrievable ruin but the shadow of 
a tempestuous night, in which two British ships of the 
line were lost. Lieutenant Greig served with the fleet 
in all its operations, during the long cruise ofi" the coast 
of Bretagne, and the blockade of the river Vilaine, to 
prevent seven French ships which lay there from joining 
■Conflans, whose battered squadron had reached Roche- 
fort ; but so dangerous were the storms, and so inces- 
santly tempestuous the weather, that the fear of invasion 
passed away. Sir Edward Hawke was at length recalled, 
and the thanks of Parliament and a pension were awarded 
to him. In this war the British destroyed, or took 
twenty-seven French ships of the line and thirty-one 
frigates. Six of their vessels perished. Thus, in all they 
lost sixty-four sail, while Britain, by every casualty, lost 
only seven line-of-battle ships and five frigates. 

The next scene of Greig's service was at the capture of 
several of the West India Islands. 

War having been declared against the Spaniards, an 
attack on their settlements in the West Indies was ar- 
ranged, and Martinico, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and 
Orenada were taken. Then Cuba was assailed. Greig 
was with the fleet, consisting of nineteen sail of the line, 
eighteen frigates, and 150 transports, which had 10,000 
soldiers on board, and sailed for Cuba under Admiral 
Sir George Pocoke, K.B., whose commodore was the Hon. 
Augustus Keppel, raised to the peerage in 1782. 

The energy and exertions of Lieutenant Greig, during 



SIR SAMUEL GREIG. 87 

chat tremendous cannonadiug which jjreceded the siege 
and capture of the Moro Castle, elicited the praise of his 
commander ; but no promotion followed, for the time was 
unfavourable for either Scotsmen or Irishmen rising in 
the British service. After incredible exertions, difficult 
ties, danger, and slaughter, Havannah was captured, with 
180 miles of coast ; the Puntal Castle, the ships in the 
harbour, three millions sterling of booty, and an immense 
quantity of arms, artillery, and stores were surrendered 
to the British. Greig's share of this enormous prize- 
money was very small, being somewhere about SOL 

Lieutenant Greig served in many other engagements 
during that successful war ; and his bravery, activity, and 
skill as a seaman had so frequently elicited particular 
attention, that after the treaty of peace which was signed 
at Paris in February, 1763, under Lord Bute's administra- 
tion, when the Court of St. Petersburg requested that a 
few British officers of distinguished ability might be sent 
to improve the Russian fleet, Greig was one of the Jive 
who were first selected, and his rank as lieutenant in the 
navy of Russia was confirmed by the Empress Catherine 
IL, in 1764. The only stipulation he and the other? 
made was, that they were to have the power of returning 
to the British service 'whenever they chose. 

Bussia, since the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
has ever been an excellent field for Scottish talent and 
valour. Thus Greig, by his superior skill in naval affairs, 
his intelligence and diligent discharge of the duties en- 
trusted to him, soon attracted the special notice of the 
Imperial Government, and the Empress appointed him a 
captain in her fleet. He drew many other Scotsmen 
around him, and, with these, he was at incredible pains 
to teach the half-barbarous and wholly unlettered Rus^- 
sians the science of seamanship and the art of gunnery, 
in all of which they were very deficient, " and he rapidly 
raised the Russian naval service to a degree of respecta. 
bility and importance which it never before had at- 
tained." 

In 1769, when he was in his thirty-fourth year, a war 
broke out between Russia and Turkey, consequent on the 



88 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

,:,ivil strife which religious intolerance had kindled in 
Poland. The Czarina marched in her troops ; and while 
pretending that her sole object was to rescue one body of 
Polish citizens from the tyranny of the other, she secretly 
sought to enslave them all, and render their country a 
province of the Russian empire. 

The growing greatness of the latter had alarmed its old 
hereditary enemy, the Grand Seignior, who required Ca- 
therine immediately to withdraw her troops from the 
Polish republic. Evasions were given, and conflicts began 
between the Russian and Turkish outposts, on the borders 
of the Ottoman empire, until the sack of Balta, in Lesser 
Tartary, and a general massacre of its inhabitants, by the 
soldiers of the Czarina, procured the committal of her 
ambassador to the Castle of the Seven Towers, in October, 
1769 ; and hostilities, which were only suspended by the 
rigour of the season, began early in the spring of the en- 
suing year. 

Captain Greig was appointed commodore of the fleet 
which was to sail for the Mediterranean, under Alexis 
Count Orloff" ; and in that ample arena of service he had 
an opportunity of displaying his zeal and intrepidity in 
such a manner as led to his immediate promotion to the 
rank of flag-officer. 

A partial breaking up of the ice in the Baltic enabled 
some of the fleet to sail ; and so early as the 14th of Ja- 
nuary, 1770, one part of the armament, under the Scot- 
tish admiral Elphinstone, consisting of one 70-gun ship, 
two of sixty guns each, and five others, arrived at Spit- 
head, en route for the Archipelago. 

The other division, of twenty-two sail of the line, 
reached Port Mahon, in Minorca, so early as the 4th of 
January ; and by the 6th of March appeared off Cepha- 
lonia, the largest of the Ionian Isles, and, with a fair 
wind, bore away directly for the Morea. At Minorca 
tliey left some vessels to wait for Elphinstone, who left 
Spithead on the 14th of April, passed Gibraltar on the 
4th of May, and before the end of July had twice de- 
feated the Turkish fleet — on one occasion encountering 
three times his force, and destroying eight ships ; on 



SIR SAMUEL GREIO. 89^^ 

the second occasion, with nineteen ships, encountering 
Giafar Bey, with twenty-three. Giafar's largest ships 
were destroyed, and his fleet dispersed. 

In the great battle of the 6th of July, Greig, Macken- 
zie, and other officers in the Russian fleet, had an oppor- 
tunity of eminently rendering good and gallant service ; 
and by their energy and skill the world now saw a naval 
force, which, as Cormick says, had issued from the foot of 
the Baltic, able " to shake the remotest parts of the Me- 
diterranean, to intercept the trade of the Levant, to 
excite and support the insurrection of the Greek Chris- 
tians, and to leave nothing of the vast empire of their 
enemies free from alarm and confusion." 

The united squadron of the Admirals Count Orloff, 
jfilphinstone, Spiritoff", and Commodore Greig, followed 
the Turkish fleet, which consisted of fifteen sail of the 
line, twelve frigates, &c., into the Channel of Scio, which 
divides the island from Anadoli, or the Lesser Asia ; 
there the Turks were at anchor in a most advantageous 
position, at the foot of the Gulf of Liberno, where their 
rear and flanks were protected by rocks. 

Early in the morning of the 5th, Commodore Greig was 
sent to reconnoitre the roads between Scio and the main ; 
and in the afternoon he signalled the enemy in sight, con- 
sisting of thirti/ sail in aU. Orlofi", the admiral-general, 
held a council of war, at which Greig's ojjinion was 
specially asked, and his advice followed. 

On the 6th, at ten in the morning, Orloff' signalled tc^ 
form line, and the Russian fleet approached the Turks. 
Orloff was in the centre, with three Birnates ; Commo- 
dore Greig led one division, and Elphinstone the other — 
in all, ten sail of the line, and five frigates ; and they 
each bore down with ensigns flying, all their ports open, 
and decks cleared for action. There were many French 
officers on board c>f the Turkish fleet, which had been, 
joined by about thirty lieutenants, who had received the 
permission of King Louis to enter the Sultan's service. 
A terrible scene of carnage ensued, and the whole conflict 
is admirably detailed in a letter published in the Scots 
Magazine for that year, by a Lieutenant Mackenzie, wh9 



■90 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUKE. 

served on board of her Imperial Majesty's sliip the 
Suntostoff. 

At eleven o'clock the battle began. Admiral Spiritoff 
ranged up alongside of the Turkish admiral, who was in 
the Sidtana, of ninety brass guns, and thus they fought 
jard-arm and yard-arm together, pouring in and receiving 
cannon-shot, chain-shot, hand-grenades and musketry. 
Spiritoff 's topmasts were shot away, his bulwarks bat- 
tered down, and blood ran from his scuppers into the sea. 
He led his sailors in an attempt to board the SultaTuij 
and tore the banner of the Crescent from her stern ; but 
the boarders were repulsed, and obliged to sheer off, for 
the Turk took fire, and his burning mainmast fell on 
board of Spiritoff's ship, which also became wrapped in 
flames ; and in ten minutes both ships blew up. " I leave 
you to judge," says Mackenzie, " of the dreadful scene of 
seeing so many hundreds of poor souls blown into the air, 
while the rest were hotly engaged." Spiritoff and twenty- 
four officer saved themselves in the barge. 

The remainder of the Turkish fleet, after being severely 
mauled by Elphinstone and Greig (Orloff was little of a 
seaman), cut their cables, and ran into the harbour of 
Chismeh, a small town in the Sanjak of Siglah, at the 
bottom of a bay one mile broad, and two miles long. 
Across the mouth of this bay the fleet, under Orloff, El- 
phinstone, and the Commodore, lay for the whole night, 
firing round shot, and throwing in bombs. The fire of 
Greig's ship was particularly destructive ; but on the 
Turks getting batteries established on the height between 
Scio and the coast of Anadoli, he and the two admirals 
were obliged to haul off. Two fireships were prepared 
©n the 7th, under the direction of Elphinstone and Greig; 
and a council of war was held by the principal officers in 
the cabin of Count Orloff. It was there suggested by 
the Commodore, and resolved upon, that at midnight four 
ships of the line, two frigates, and the bomb-ketch, should 
enter the harbour, and while attacking the enemy, 
send the fireships on their errand of destruction ; but 
volunteers were required to lead, and three officers, all 
Scotsmen, at onpe stepced forward. These were, Commo- 



SIB SAMUEL GREIG. 91 

dore Greig, Lieutenant Mackenzie, of the Switostoff, and 
Captain-Lieutenant Drysdale (or Dugdale, for this officer 
is called alternately by both names in many accounts oi 
these wars), and they made every preparation for tha 
desperate duty before them. At half-past twelve at night 
the signal was made to weigh anchor, and bear into the 
little bay ; Drysdale and Mackenzie had the fireships ; 
Greig led the ships of the line and the two frigates, which, 
at four hundred yards' distance, cannonaded the Turks, 
while the bomb-ketch plied its mortars. Greig signalled 
the fireships to bear down ; Drysdale and Mackenzie an- 
swered it, and, favoured by the wind, ran right into the 
teeth of the Turks, whose centre ship was at that moment 
set on fire by a fortunate shot from the Commodore. 

Drysdale's crew unfortunately left his ship before the 
proper time. Indeed, the Russians were so overcome 
with terror by the darkness of the night, the boom of the 
Turkish shot, and by the fireships, of which they were 
unable to comprehend the use, that it was only by dint 
of his sword and pistols that Drysdale kept them to their 
duty ; but when near the enemy the helmsman aban- 
doned the rudder, the whole crew sprang into their boat, 
and abandoned the brave Scotsman on board of the fire- 
ship ! 

In this terrible situation his native courage never 
deserted him ; he lashed the helm, and (though a boat 
full of armed Turks was pulling alongside) held the ship 
on lier course till, with his own unaided hands, he hooked 
the grapnel-irons to the anchor-cable of the nearest ship, 
which proved to be a large caravella. He then fired the 
train by discharging a pistol, and in doing so was severely 
scorched by the explosion. At the moment the Turks 
boarded him on one side he sprang into the sea from the 
other, and swam from the blazing ship. Many a shot was 
fired after him, but he escaped, and was saved with diffi- 
Jty by the boats of Greig. 

The fireships blew up with the most admirable effect, 
and the result was, beyond Greig's utmost expectations, 
decisive and disastrous, for in five hours the whole 
Turkish fleet was burned to the water-edge and totally 



02 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

destroyed — all, save one ship, Giafar Bey's, of seventy 
guns, four row-galleys, and some gilt barges of twenty-four 
oars. The morning sun, as he shone upon the Isle of 
Scio and Anadolian shore, saw a scene of unexampled 
devastation — every Turkish mast had vanished from the 
bay, and pieces of charred and floating wreck alone re- 
mained ! The following were the ships destroyed by 
Greig :— 

Capitan Alebi, 84 guns. Aclimet, 86 guns. 

Bashaw, 90 guns. Hamisi, 60 guns. 

Patrona Ayckrece, 80 guns. All Eandioto, 60 guns. 

Reala Mustapha, 96 guns. Melehin, 80 guns. 

Mulensi Achmet, 84 guns. Rapislan Bashaw, 64 guns. 

Emir Mustapha, 84 guns. Zefirbe, 84 guns. 

La Barharocine, 64 guns, was towed out of the harbour 
by his boats. Two other large ships (names unkno^-n) 
were burned, with four frigates, eight 40-gun ships, eight 
galleys, and several row-boats. He rescued 400 Christian 
slaves, hauled close in shore, bombarded the town, blew 
np the castle, and reduced the whole place to a heap of 
rubbish before nine o'clock in the morning, by which time 
more than 6000 Turks had been shot, burned, or 
^ -.owned. 

For this brilliant service Greig was at once made a 
rear-admiral by Count Orloff, while Lieutenants Drysdale 
and Mackenzie received the rank of captain, all of which 
appointments the Empress was pleased to confirm. 
Though the unfortunate Capitan Pacha, who commanded, 
was severely wounded, the Sultan ordered his head to 
be struck off, and appointed Giafar Bey admiral in his 
place. As rear-admiral Greig's pay amounted to 2160 
roubles per annum. Immediately after this victory Ad- 
miral Elphin stone sailed with his squadron for the Isle of 
Tenedos, to block up the Dardanelles, where he captured 
forty vessels destined for Const<mtinople, forced most of 
the Isles of the Archipelago to declare for Russia, and 
levied contributions everywhere, taxing Mitylene in 
150,000 piastres. Greig accompanied Count Orloff to the 
iiege of the Castle of Lemnos, which proceeded slowly, 
die only troops they had being revolted Greeks, who wero 



SIR SA3IUEL GREIG. 98 

afterwards cut to pieces by Hassan Bey, and then the 
Russians bent all their efforts to force the passage of the 
Dardanelles ; but so strongly was it fortified by the Che- 
valier Tott, and other Frenchmen, that every attempt 
proved futile. 

In the winter of 1770 Greig's commission was further 
confirmed by a letter from the Empress, and in his ship, 
the Three Prbnates, he brought the nominal commander- 
in-chief. Count Orloff", to Leghorn on the 7th of De- 
cember, as the fleet was leaving the Archipelago for want 
of men, and the batteries of the Dardanelles were daily 
becoming stronger under the skilful eye of Tott, to whom 
the grateful Sultan paid 100 scudi daily, as the saviour of 
his capital. 

At Leghorn the Sieur Rutherford, Commissary of the 
Russian Court, sold all the prizes taken by the fleet. 
Having secret views of his o'^ti concerning the unfortunate 
Princess Tarakanoff, the Count Orloff, who is styled 
minister plenipotentiary, general of the Russian troops, 
and admiral-general, proposed to spend the winter partly 
at Pisa, and partly at Leghorn, " in order to take care of 
the Russian squadron," as peace was expected. Greig is 
said to have demurred ; Admiral Elphinstone expressed 
dissatisfaction, and when ordered to sail on " a secret ex- 
pedition" he bluntly declined. An altercation ensued 
between him and the count. He was put under arrest, 
and reported to the Empress, who recalled him, and 
he retired from her service in disgust. On his presenta- 
tion to Catherine he appeared in the blue uniform of the 
British navy, on which she turned coldly away, saying to 
one of her favourites, " It is high time this Scot was out 
of my service, when he has laid aside my uniform !" 

Meanwhile the fleet was not inactive, for Mackenzie, 
Brodie, and other officers, who served under Spiritoff, were 
very zealous. Thus, by the 20th January, 1771, they 
had destroyed nineteen Dulcignotte tartans, and exacted 
from the Isles of the Archipelago the same tribute which 
they yearly paid the Sultan. At the same time the 
Russian troops had taken the city of Sinope, on the Black 
Sea, the fortress of Giurgievo, and other places in the 



94 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

Turkish provinces. A squadron, commanded by the 
Knights of Malta, joined Orloff's flag ; Scio was again 
ravaged by the Russians, a large dulcignotte destroyed, 
and the fighting among the fertile and beautiful isles of 
Greece was incessant ; Greig was constantly employed, 
and daily added to his reputation as a brave and skilful 
officer. 

He had assisted in the destruction of all the magazines 
which had been formed to supply the Turkish capital ; at 
the bombardment of Negropont, the capital of the ancient 
Euboea, where the troops were landed to destroy the 
stores of corn and floar ; he had cruised along the shore 
of Macedonia ; been at the bom'bardment of Ca valla in 
Romelia, and the destruction of the storehouses atSalonica; 
and in the Gulf of Kassanderah, while Count Theodore, 
the brother of Count Alexis Orloff, scoured all the shores 
of Anadoli, and cannonaded Rhodez. The united Russian 
fleet, under the three admirals, Orlofl", Spiritoff", and 
Greig, made sixty-six sail in all on the 1st of November. 

While the Russian army by land was making daily 
successful attacks on the Turks, and had crossed the 
Danube under General Romanzow, and twice besieged 
Silistria, pushing the war round the shores of the Black 
Sea, and into the Crimea, the naval squadrons had many 
desperate encounters in the Archipelago, and one very 
sharp action off the Isle of Scio, when seven Russian ships 
of the line and two frigates engaged ten Turkish ships 
and six large galleys, on the 10th of October, 1773, and 
after fighting from ten in the morning until long 
past mid-day, entirely defeated them, taking five sail, 
sinking two, and putting the rest to flight. In one of 
these encounters a ball struck Admiral Greig, and bent 
one of the points of his cross of St. George, carrying away 
a piece of the enamel. Every captain of the Russian 
navy then wore the military order of St. George, the 
badge of which is a knight and dragon, attached to a 
black ribbon. 

A descent was made upon the Isle of Cyprus ; another 
on Candia, and elsewhere ; but the Russians were re- 
pulsed, and four sacks filled with their scales were sent 



SIR SAMUEL GEEIG. OS' 

fi'om Stanchio as a proof of the reception they had met 
with in that island. 

In the end of 1773 Greig returned to St. Petersburg, 
and, with Admiral Sir Charles Knowles, made every 
exertion to have a better and more efficient squadron dis- 
patched to the Dardanelles. With this under his com- 
mand he sailed again from Cronstadt, and after touching 
at Portsmouth, bore on for the Mediterranean on the 17th 
of February, 1774. With his flag flying as vice-admiral, 
he reached Leghorn, where, for purposes of his own, 
Alexis Orloff was again loitering. On this expedition 
Greig was accompanied by his wife, for whom every 
accommodation had been made in his ship, the Issidorum ; 
but being of course unwilling that she should risk the 
dangers of the Turkish war, he landed her at Leghora, 
where the house of the Russian consul was assigned to 
her as a residence. The ships composing his fleet were — 

The Issidorum, 74 guns . . . Captain Surminoft*. 

The Mironfitz, 74 guns . . . Captain Mouskin Pouskin. 

St. Alexander Newski, 64 guns Captain Voronari. 

Demetrius Douski, 64 guns . . Captain Pajaskoff. 

St. Paulus, 30 guns .... Captain Palovski. 

During Greig's brief sojourn at Leghorn there occurred 
one of those atrocities which so frequently blackened the 
reign of Catherine II. 

Alexis Count Orlofi* a man of the most inhuman cha- 
racter and brutal propensities, had conceived a passion for 
the young and beautiful Princess Tarakanoffj daughter of 
the late Empress Elizabeth, by her clandestine marriage 
with the Grand Veneur. This princess had been con- 
veyed to Pome by the artful Prince Padzivil, beyond the 
reach of Catherine's intrigues and tyranny. But Orloff 
had been ordered to decoy her hack to St. Peters! wirg on 
the first opportunity. Accordingly, during one of his 
visits to Leghorn, he laid a snare for her, by sending an 
Italian, named Signor Pibas, afterwards a Knight of 
Malta, to visit her. This vile person, who found the poor 
princess in a mean lodging, told her that he " had come 
to pay homage to her beauty and misfortunes, and to 



96 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

deplore the destitution in which he found her." He 
then offered her money, adding that he " was commis- 
sioned by Alexis Orloff to promise her the throne her 
mother had tilled, and at the same time his sincere love, 
if she would honour him with her hand." After some 
hesitation she was overcome by the apparent sincerity and 
brilliance of the proposal, which seemed the more splendid 
by her destitute condition, and accepted the offer of Orloff 
He visited her repeatedly; a feigned marriage was per- 
formed by two Russian officers, disguised as Catholic 
priests; villainy completed the imposture : for a time — two 
or three months — ^he placed her in a magnificent palace at 
Pisa, and then brought her to Leghorn. It was at this 
crisis that Admiral Greig entered the port, and his wife* 
is mentioned as being among the first to visit the young 
princess, who was far from suspecting the temble snare 
laid for her — a snare of which the English consul is said 
to have been cognizant. Deluded by the caresses and 
feigned love of Orloff, she begged to be " shown the large 
and beautiful ships of the Russian fleet," which was 
ordered to prepare for her reception. 

On her arriving at the beach, she was placed by Orloff 
in a liandsome boat, screened by a silken awning ; the 
second barge conveyed the vice-admiral and other British 
officers, who for many years after were all unconscious of 
the villainy of Orloff. Music, huzzas, and salutes of 
artillery welcomed the unhappy daughter of the Empress 
Elizabeth on board the nearest ship ; and the moment 
she stood upon its deck, she was Jiaiidcnffed with heavy 
irons, and tlirust into one of the lowest cabins. She 
threw herself at the feet of Orloff, and implored pity as 
his wife; but was answei'ed by laughter and mockery, 
while the anchor was weighed, and the ship sailed for St. 
Petersburg, where she was shut up in a fortress on the 
Neva, and was never heard of again ! 

Rumour adds a darker tinge to this tale of Russian 
cruelty, by asserting that, two years afterwards, when the 

* Tooke states that Mrs. Greig was not at Leghorn ; but the 
French authorities affirm that she was, and place this ev^ent iii 1774. 



SIR SAMUEL GREIG. 97 

tvatei's of tlie Neva rose ten feet by an inundation, tliey 
filled the horrid vault in which she was confined, and 
drowned her. Her body was then flung into the stream^ 
and swept by its current into the Gulf of Finland. 

But to return. As the wind continued fair, Greig 
bore away for Paros, a beautiful isle of the central 
Cyclades, which was the rendezvous of the fleet under 
Spiritoff", and where a great many small vessels of an 
entirely new construction, were prepared for the purpose 
of embarking and landing troops. 

Here the Russians had seized and sold a number of 
Venetian ships, consequently the senate ordered all their 
vessels of war to be prepared to resist the new armament 
of Greig, and in March rigged two ships of 84 guns 
each, and two more of 75 : these ultimately came to 
blows with the Turks, and defeated them off the Isle of 
Candia. 

On the 10th of March, tidings having come to Paros 
that the Turkish fleet were about to surprise the Russian 
garrison at Sciros, a 50-gim ship and four frigates were 
despatched to oppose the attempt, but signally foiled — 
for they were all burned or taken but one. The genera* 
head-quarters of the Czarina's forces were at the Isle of 
Paros; and there, during the spring of 1774, the Ad- 
mirals Spiritoff and Greig anchored their armaments at 
Port Naussa, on the northern shore — one of the finest 
harbours in the Archipelago, and in the channel between 
Paros and the bold and lofty coast of Naxos. Their 
regular troops occupied Marmora and Zimbido, while their 
Albanian allies were at Bachia. Greig and Spiritoff 
made every effort to refit the old ships, and prepare them 
for hostilities in summer, and when their cruisers joined 
them from Patmos and Tasso ; but before anything of 
importance was achieved, the Empress concluded a peace 
with the Turks — a peace, says Prederick the Great, " re- 
splendent with glory, by the success which her arms had 
met with against her enemies during the war ;" and by 
this peace, the treaty of Kutchuk-Kainardgi, Catherine 
stipulated that the Crimea, which had hitherto been 
ander the subjection of the Turks, should be, in all time 

u 



^8 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

* 

coming, an independent sovereignty under its own klian^ 
thus lessening the power of the Porte. 

Admiral Greig now returned to Eussia with the fleet, 
and for many years devoted himself entirely to the 
improvement of the Kussian marine, and the development 
of the naval resources of the Empire — remodelling its code 
of discipline, relaxing its barbarity, civilizing and edu- 
cating its oflScers and men, by training the marine cadets 
on board of two frigates or floating academies, and thus 
iustly earning for himself the honourable and endearing 
sobriquet of the Father of the Russian Navy. For these 
and other valuable services the grateful Empress bestowed 
upon him the government of Cronstadt, and a commission 
as High Admiral of all the Russias, at the same time deco- 
rating him with the Orders of St. Andrew, St. George of 
the second class, St. Yladimir, which she instituted on 
the 22nd September, 1782 (her twentieth coronation day), 
and St. Anne of Holstein, which is always the gift ojf 
the Grand Duke. His great assistant was Mr. Gordon, 
director-general of the ship-building, who at one time 
had building, under his own immediate care, two ships of 
100 guns each, three of 90 guns each, six of 70 guns 
each, and ten of 40 guns each — all of which, for theii- 
skilful construction, strength, swiftness, and beauty of 
mould, had never been equalled by any previous effort of 
Russian naval architecture. 

The admiral's pay was now 7000 roubles per annum. 
In accordance with the custom of the Russian nobility, 
who add the Christian name of their father to their own, 
with the termination owitch, which signifies tlie son of, 
we find the Scottish admiral signing and designating him- 
self '* Samuel Carlovitch Greig." He was ever treated 
with the greatest consideration and honour by the Em- 
press, who, in the year 1776, paid him the compliment of 
a visit — then esteemed an unparalleled act of condescen- 
sion for the crowned head of Russia, who, among many 
absurd and hyperbolical titles, had (and perhaps still re* 
tains) the blasphemous one of " Chamberkin to Almighty 
God." 

On the 18th of July the Empress, attended by all the 



SIR SAMUEL GREIG. 99 

great officers of her state and liousehold, went in a mag- 
nificent barge from Oranienbaum to Admiral Greig's ship, 
the yards of which he had manned. As soon as he had 
handed her on board, the Imperial standard was hoisted, 
and the whole fleet fired a salute, which Avas responded to 
by nine hundred pieces of cannon in Cronstadt. Dinner 
was set in Greig's cabin for the Empress and a hundred 
guests, who were the principal officers of her marine and 
other departments. The whole fleet then weighed 
anchor, and Catherine, accompanied by the infamous 
Orloff, Field-Marshal Count Galitzin, and Count Bruce, 
the adjutant on duty, was rowed in her barge along 
the line amid another salute of cannon. Before return- 
ing to Oranienbaum she placed on Greig's breast the 
golden and eight-pointed star of St. Alexander Newski, 
with the red ribbon, which is worn over the left 
shoulder. 

During the peace, Greig was unremitting in his efforts 
to draw British officers into the service, and the number 
who ofiered their swords and valour to the Czarina soon 
conduced, by their skill and talent, to render her navy 
for the first time respectable and formidable in Eui'ope.* 

Thus it was that, in 1799, in Lord Duncan's line of 
battle, August 24th, at the Texel, we find among the 
Russian ships of war, the Ratisvan, commanded by 
Cai:>tain Greig ; and in September, under the same gal- 
lant admiral, the Scottish captains Scott, Dunn, Boyle, 
Maclagan, Ogilvie, and Rose, commanding the Russiaii 
ships Alexander NewsM, 74 ; Neptune, 54 ; Rafaill, 44 ; 
Revel, 44 ; Minerva, 38 ; and ^t. Nicholas, 38, embarking 
the Russian troops at Revel ; and thus it was, that when 
Russia, fifteen years before, projected a new war against 



* In the battle with the Swedes in 1790, four Russian ships were 
commanded by Scottish captains, viz., Denniston, whose head was 
shot off; Marshal, who was drowned when leading his boarders; 
Miller and Aikin, who each lost a leg. The latter died under the 
torture of his wound. Six Russian admirals, all Scotchmen, Mac- 
kenzie, Ogilvie, Mercer, Mason, and the two Greigs, have hoisted 
their flags in the Black Sea. Mackenzie was the first naval chief at 
Sebastopol, — See Slade's Travels, vol. ii. 
h2 



too THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUZO:. 

the Turks, in consequence of their interference with the 
affairs of the independent Crimea, the Empress found her 
fleet to consist of upwards of ninety sail at Cronstadt, 
JRevel, and in the Sea of A soph. 

By the 11th of October, 1783, Admiral Greig had 
ready a fleet for the Mediterranean consisting of twelve 
sail of the line — viz., one of 76 guns, two of 74, three of 
70, four of 64, two of 60, four frigates, a sloop, three store- 
ships, two fireships, two bomb-ketches, and two galleys. 
Tlie vice-admiral of this fine armament was his old brother- 
officer, who had shared with him the glory of that night's 
desperate work in the Bay of Chismeh. All these ships 
were in the best condition, and British officera were judi- 
ciously distributed among them ; but the poor Khan of 
the Crimea, Sahim Gueray — the last of the lineal descen- 
dants of the far-famed Ghengiz Khan — abdicated his 
power, which he transferred to the Czarina, and his valu- 
able ten'itory on the Black Sea was quietly confirmed to 
her by a treaty with the Sultan in 1784. Since then it 
has formed a part of the Russian Empire, together with 
part of the Kuban and all the land between the Eoog, 
the Dneister, and the Black Sea. 

The next scene of Admiral Greig's active service was 
against the Swedes, who became implicated in the dispute 
wlaich ensued between the Porte and the Czarina, against 
whom they rashly declared war. Hostilities ensued ; the 
Swedish troops advanced into Finland, and recaptured 
several towns. 

" Alexis Count Orloff, appointed to command the Me- 
diterranean fleet, has declined that honour, and left tlio 
court," says the Gentleman s Magazine for April, 1788; 
" and Admiral Greig, on whom it in course devolved, has 
jjleaded the necessity of a journey to his native country, 
to be excused from that service." The armament offered 
Greig by the Empress was on a magnificent scale ; it con- 
sisted of twenty-eight ships of the line, three of them 
carrying 100 guns and 800 officers and seamen each ; six 
of 90 guns, with 650 seamen each ; four of 80 guns, with 
600 seamen each ; eleven of 74 guns, with 500 men each ; 
two of 64 guns, with 400 men each ; two hundred and 



SIR SAMUEL GREIG. 101 

forty-eiglit sail of frigates, sloops, and transports, con- 
taining eleven battalions of infantry ; two carracques, 
with 1000 horse, and seven of marines; twenty-five 
victual and hospital ships, mounting in all 1194 pieces of 
cannon, and having 28,000 men on board. 

But the admiral does not seem either to have visited 
Scotland or sailed with this armament to the Mediter- 
ranean, as he assumed command of the Imperial Baltic 
fleet, destined to oppose the Duke of Sudermania, brother 
of the King of Sweden, who put to sea with twenty-ona 
sail, consisting of the Gustavus, 111, Soyliia, Magdalena^ 
and Prins Gustaf, of 70 guns each ; nine CO-gun ships, 
six 40-gun frigates, and three smaller vessels. 

Count Wachdmeister led the van, Captain Linderstedt 
the rear. Sweden made incredible exertions in this war, 
the object of which was to retake Finland and Carelia ; 
four 40-gun frigates were fitting out at Gottenberg, and 
nine ships of the line at Carlscrona. The news of these 
and other armaments filled St. Petersburg with some- 
thing very like consternation ; but Greig prepared for 
sea with all the vessels he could collect, and the utmost 
activity prevailed at Biga, where Count Brown, a veteran 
Irish general, was governor. Greig declared, however, to 
the Empress, that if the United Kingdoms of Great 
Britain engaged in this war antagonistic to Bussia, he 
would feel himself under the painful necessity of resign- 
ing his high rank, and returning to his former position of 
lieutenant in the Boyal Navy ; " that he would always 
exert himself to the utmost against any other power who 
might be in alliance with the enemy, but that he would 
never fire a shot in the face of his native country." He 
ordered the calibre of the ship guns to be altered, direct- 
ing that all from 24-pounders downwards should be of 
less weight with a larger bore. 

In May, 1788, while war and preparations were pend- 
ing, a dispute ensued between the Empress and upwards 
of sixty British officers of her fleet, on occasion of a 
rumour being spread abroad, that she meant to receive 
into her service Paul Jones, the celebrated Scottish rene- 
gade. These gentlemen^ -^arly all of whom were Scots- 



1:02 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

men, waited on the President of the Admu'alty, and 
resigned their commissions, delivering, at the same time, 
a manifesto, "whereby they not only refused to serve 
under, but even with that oJ0S.cer." The French officei-s 
who were paid by the Czarina displayed the same repug- 
nance to have this famous privateersman for a comrade ; 
and by this dispute, which, however, was soon arranged, 
ten sail of the line were for a time completely unofficered. 
To the satisfaction of Admiral Greig and his compatriots, 
it was arranged, that "Mr. Jones should never be 
appointed to command in that part of the ocean where 
they were employed." In the meantime, a scandalous 
adventure of the Chevalier Paul with a girl of loose 
character, ended his hope of employment even under 
Catherine II. 

Greig now received from the Emperor of Germany a 
present of 10,000 roubles and a valuable estate in Livonia. 
This was just before he sailed from Cronstadt with the 
fleet, which consisted of one three-decker, eight 74-gun 
ships, eight 6 6 -gun ships, and seven frigates, to oppose 
the formidable force of the Duke of Sudermania, whom 
he overtook between the island of Schten Seaker and the 
Bay, of Cabo de Grund. 

The Duke of Sudermania states, that with thirty-one 
sail he was cruising in the Narrows of Kalkboden and 
Elkhomen in a dense fog, with an easterly wind, when, 
early on the morning of the 17th of July, the report of 
alarm guns ahead summoned his crews hurriedly to 
quarters, and almost before order of battle could be 
assumed, amid the dangers of a lee shore, enveloped in 
the morning mist, the fleet of the Scoto-Russian Admiral, 
consisting then of thirty-three sail, all in close order, 
were within gunshot, his van being close to the prince's 
centre. After considerable manoeuvring, in which the 
skill of Greig is praised by the prince in his dispatch, 
they were within musket-shot by five p.m., when the 
battle began in all its fury, and sixty-four ships, twenty- 
nine of which were sail of the line, engaged in all the 
carnage of a yard-arm conflict; and so thickly did the 



SIR SAMUEL GREIG. 103 

emoke of the Russian fleet settle down upon tlie Swedes, 
" that it was impossible to make or answer signals," says 
the Duke of Sudermania, " or even to distinguish our 
own line." 

The duke was in the Charles Gustavus, a three-decker ; 
Greig fought his own ship, the Rotislaw of 100 guns ; 
and the operations of the day are thus detailed by him 
in his dispatch to the Empress ; — 

" I most humbly beg to inform your Imperial Majesty, 
that on the 17th of July, about noon, we fell in with the 
Swedish fleet, consisting of fifteen ships of the line, carry- 
ing from sixty to seventy guns ; eight large frigates (carry- 
ing 24-pounders), which were brought into the line owing 
to their weight of metal ; five smaller frigates, and three 
tenders, commanded by the Prince of Sudermania, with 
an admiral's flag, and having under his command one vice 
and two rear admirals. I immediately signalled to make 
sail towards the enemy ; they formed line and awaited 
us — our fleet, as it came up, formed also. The weather 
was clear, with a light breeze from the south-east. We 
bore right down on the enemy's line, and my flagship, 
the Rotislaw, engaged the Swedish admiral about 
five P.M. 

" The engagement was very hot on both sides, and 
lasted without intermission till six. Twice the Swedes 
attempted to retreat, but as it fell quite calm during the 
contest, and the ships would not answer their helms, the 
two fleets fell into some confusion, but the fire was kept 
up on both sides till dark, and then the Swedes, assisted 
by their boats, got to a distance from our ships. In this 
action we have taken the Prince Gustavus, of 70 guns, 
which carried the vice-admiral's flag. 

" She was defended with great bravery for more than 
an hour against the Rotislaw, and we had above 200 men 
killed and wounded on board before she struck. On 
board of her was the Count Wachdmeister, A.D.C. 
General to the King of Sweden, who commanded the van 
of the Swedish fleet. He came on board of my ship with 



104 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

an officer whom I sent to take possession, and delivered 
to me his flag and sword. In consideration of his gallant 
defence, I restored to him the latter. 

" I am sorry to inform your Majesty, that in the nighfc, 
and after the battle had ceased, the Wadislaw dropped 
astern of our line and fell among the Swedish fleet, by 
whom she was taken, as the darkness of the night and 
the thickness of the smoke concealed her from ns. I 
received notice of this disaster about midnight from a 
petty ofiicer, who was dispatched to me before the enemy 
took possession. In this engagement several of your 
Majesty's ships have received considerable damage, and 
the whole fleet so much in masts and rigging, that I was 
not in a condition to pursue the enemy, who, favoured by 
the wind, crowded all the sail they could to reach the 
coast of Finland, to the east of Cabo de Grund, and we 
lost sight of them steering north-east. This action began 
between the island of Schten Seaker and the Bay of Cabo 
de Grund, the former bearing SSE. distant three German 
miles, and the latter NWW. about the same distance, 
seven and a half miles east of Hohlang. I subjoin a list 
of the killed and wounded. The whole fleet are now re- 
pairing sails and rigging. 

" I must say, on this occasion, that I never saw a battle 
maintained with more spirit and courage on both sides ; 
and we have nothing to boast of but the capture of the 
commander of the vanguard, and that the enemy left us 
in possession of the field of battle. All the flag officers, 
and the greater portion of the captains gave proofs of the 
utmost courage and firmness ; and the bravery of the 
subaltern officers in general is entitled to every praise ; 
BUT it is with grief, that I am obliged to declare myself 
very much dissatisfied with the conduct of certain cap- 
tains, whom I shall be under the necessity of superseding. 
This will be done after a more particular inquiry, the 
account of which I shall transmit to your Majesty. If 
they had done their duty like good officers and faithful 
Bubiects, this action would have been more completely 
decisive, and have produced consequences equally satis- 
factory to your Majesty and your glorious empire. 1 



SIK SAMUEL GREIG. 105 

must not fail, at the same time, to make a special report 
of those who, on this occasion, personally distinguished 
themselves by their courage and conduct. (Here follow 
the lists.) 

" SAiiL Carlo viTCH Greiq. 
"H. I. M. Ship Eotislmo, July 18tb, 1788." 

The duke says that his fleet was swept round by the 
current, and every ship was thus raked fore and aft by 
tliose of Greig ; that after a lull in the conflict, it was 
renewed at 8 p.m., when, after another desperate encoun- 
ter, the Swedish fleet, with lights at the mast-heads, 
bore away for Helsingfors with all sail set, leaving the 
JPrins Giistqf, of seventy guns, lying disabled and without 
a flag ; that many of the Russian ships were severely 
mauled, but the Swedes were riddled ; for masts, spars, 
and even the rudders of some were knocked to pieces, 
while most of them had received perilous shots between 
wind and water. 

The Wadislaw, which they took, was a copper-bottomed 
seventy-four, carrying 32 and 42-pounders, with 738 men. 
It was ten at night before the last shot was fired. The- 
Russians remained masters of the channel, with all their 
colours flying ; but had the ofiicers all done their duty, 
the Swedes would not have escaped so easily, if at ail. 
Greig had 6000 troops on board j their presence in close 
action greatly increased his list of casualties, for he had 
319 killed and QQQ wounded, whereas the Swedes had 
only eight officers struck, and the number of seamen is^ 
not known. 

A dmiral Greig was soon after reinforced by four ships 
of the line ; but as the Duke of Sudermania received six 
more of seventy guns each, the fleets remained of nearly 
equal strength. 

Count Wachdmiester had yielded his sword to Greig, 
who returned it to him, saying, " I will never be the man 
to deprive so brave and worthy an officer of his sword — 
I beseech you to receive it." 

After making a suitable reply, the count sheathed it, 
and said, " that neither he nor any other person in Swe- 



166 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE 

^en believed that the Russian fleet was in so admirable a 
eondition as he found it." 

The Russian seamen had fought with incredible ardour 
and bravery ; when the wadding ran short, many of them 
tore off their clothing to clean and charge home the 
cannon ; but all the officers were by no means partners 
in their glory ; for Greig found himself under the pain- 
ful necessity of placing under arrest two captains, two 
captain lieutenants, and thirteen other officers, all Rus- 
sians, and sending them to St. Petersburg in the frigate 
La Kergopolte, of twenty-four guns, charged with having 
" abandoned Rear-Admiral Bergen when he was sur- 
rounded by four Swedish ships, and defending himself 
against them for two hours with the greatest bravery, till 
he was compelled to strike, when his ship, the Wadislaw, 
was completely shattered." 

Sir Samuel Greig added, that he had repeatedly sig- 
nalled to those officers " to advance and support the com- 
mander of their division, but that either from not under- 
standing the said signals, or from some other reason, 
they remained where they were, and saw him taken." 
Concerning their misconduct, and the battle of the 17th 
July, the Empress immediately wrote, with her own 
hand, the following characteristic letter to her gallant 
Admiral : — 

"to the most worthy and brave, (fee. 

" We should be wanting in that gratitude and polite- 
ness which should ever distinguish sovereigns, did we not 
with the utmost speed convey to you our approbation of 
your exemplary conduct ; and the obligations which we 
owe you for your intrepid conduct in your engagement 
with the fleet of our enemy, the Swedish king. To the 
constant exertion of your abilities, and your zeal for the 
glory of the common cause of ourselves and the whole 
Russian Empire, may, under God, be attributed the very 
signal victory you have gained ; and we have not the 
smallest doubt, but that every part of our dominions, to 
which this event shall be transmitted, will behold it in 
its proper view. It is with grief we read the record of 



SIR SAMUEL GREIG. 107 

these poTCroons, who, unable to catch fire from the spirited 
exertions of their brother-warriors, have so signalized 
themselves in the annals of treasonable cowardice ! and 
to that cowardice the Swede has to boast that any ship ot 
their fleet escaped when so encountered. 

" It is our pleasure that the delinquents mentioned in 
your despatch be immediately brought to Cronstadt, to 
await our further displeasure. We sincerely wish you, 
and all with you, health, and the most signal assistance 
of the Almighty God, whose aid we have invoked, and of 
whose assistance we cannot doubt in a cause so just. 

" Your services will live perpetually in our remem- 
brance j and the annals of our Empire must convey your 
name to posterity with reverence and with love ! 

" So saying, we recommend you to God's keeping ever. 
Done at St. Petersburg, the 23rd of July, in the year of 
grace 1788. 

" Catherine." 

The punishment of the seventeen unfortunates was 
peculiarly Kussian in its barbarity ; for they were placed 
in chains, with iron collars around their necks, and 
doomed to perpetual slavery in the hulks at Cronstadt, 
though many were cadets of the noblest Muscovite 
families. 

In 1789, Professor Schloeger, of Gottingen, published 
in his political magazine the orders issued by the Czarina 
to the admiral before leaving Cronstadt ; and by these it 
appears, that he " was to attack, and, if possible, to carry 
away the Swedish admiral-general, even at the total loss 
of the whole fleet of Kussia." 

Por nearly a fortnight Greig busied himself in tho- 
roughly refitting his fleet; on the 6th of August he 
signalled to weigh anchor at dawn, and on the 7th arrived 
oft* Sveaborg, where he found four Swedish ships at 
anchor in the roads ; but they cut their cables, and, 
under a press of sail, retired into port in confusion. 
Greig followed them l3oldly, and just as his leading ship 
came within musket-shot of the sternmost Swede, the 
latter struck upon a sunken rock ; her mainmast went 



108 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

by the board, and after maintaining a short cannonade 
with Admiral E-oslainow, she struck her colours. The 
other three escaped into shallow water. Greig's boats 
took possession of the bilged ship, which proved to 
be the Gustavus Adolphus, of 64 guns, commanded by 
Colonel Christierne, who was taken prisoner with thirteen 
officers and 530 men, after which Greig ordered her to be 
blown up. He next seized a ship laden with cables, sails, 
medicine, (fee, for the Swedish fleet. 

Meanwhile the Duke of Sudermania remained a quiet 
spectator in Sveaborg, where he was completely blocked 
up by Greig, although he had under his command sixteen 
ships of the line and eight frigates. 

Till the 9th Greig remained ofi" Sveaborg, which is 
strongly fortified by nature and art, and then, in tlie 
hope that the duke would come out, as the wind was 
favourable for his doing so, he sailed slowly across the 
Gulf of Finland towards the opposite coast of Revel, and 
on his approaching the isle of Margen, placed his cruisers 
towards the west, so as completely to cut off the Swedish 
fleet from all succour by way of Carlscrona, and to prevent 
them forming a junction with five ships laden with stores, 
of which they were in the greatest need. 

Here Greig was joined by two 64- gun ships ; and on 
the 14th of August he was ofi" Eevel in Esthonia. 
Meanwhile the Swedish and Russian troops had many 
fierce encounters in Finland; but the former were 
unsuccessful, and this expedition ended in defeat and 
disaster. 

The indefatigable Greig continued to cruise in the gulf 
until the month of October ; and, though sufiering from 
a severe illness, he completely blocked up the Swedes in 
Sveaborg, cut them oiF from succour, and saved St. Pe- 
tersburg from alarm. 

On the 2nd October, the weather became exceedingly 
stormy, and the Russian fleet were all dispersed. Then the 
Duke of Sudermania thought he might essay something 
against Greig ; but, though sick and infirm, the latter soon 
collected all his ships, and the blockade was resumed more 



SIR SAMUEL GREIG. 109 

strictly than ever ; but, unhappily, his illness terminated 
in a violent fever, and, on the 26th of that month the 
brave admiral expired, in the fifty- third year of his age, 
on board of his flag-ship the Rotislaio, to the great sor- 
row of every officer and seaman in the fleet, where, by 
his bravery, justice, generosity, and goodness of heart, he 
had indeed won for himself the honourable title of the 
Father oftlie Russian Navy. 

The tidings of his death were the signal for a general 
mourning at St. Petersburg ; and, while Admiral SpiritofF 
assumed the command of the fleet, the Empress ordered 
the interment of her favourite officer to be conducted with 
a pomp, solemnity, and magnificence never before wit- 
nessed in Russia. 

The funeral took place on the 5th of December. Some 
days before it, the body lay on a state bed in the hall of 
the Admiralty, which was hung with black cloth, while 
the doors were festooned with white crape, and the vast 
apartment was lighted by silver lustres. Under a canopy 
of crape the body was placed on three small arches, 
dressed in full uniform, the head being encircled by a 
wreath of laurel. A t its foot stood an urn, adorned with 
silver anchors and streamers, inscribed — 

" S. G. nat. d. 30 Nov. 1735— obit d. 15 Oct. 1788." 

The coffin stood on six feet of massy silver. It was 
covered with black velvet, lined with white satin ; the 
handles and fringes were of pure silver, and the pillows of 
blonde lace. On three tabourettes of crimson and gold 
lay his five orders of knighthood — one of them, the St. 
George's Cross, mutilated by a shot in the Archipelago ; 
and around were twelve pedestals, covered with crape and 
flowers, bearing twelve gigantic candles. At the head of 
the bed hung all his flags ; and two staflf officers and six 
marine captains were constantly beside it until the day of 
jiterment, when Lieutenant the Baron Yanden Pahlen 
pronounced a high eulogy in honour of the brave de- 
based. 



110 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

The cannon of the ramparts and fleet fired minute-guns 
during the procession from the Admiralty to the Cathe- 
dral of St. Catherine, through streets lined by the troops. 
The funeral pageant was very magnificent and im- 
pressive. 

Swartzenhoup's dragoons, with standards lowered ; the 
grenadiers of the Empress, with arms reversed ; the 
public schools of the capital ; the clergy of the Greek 
Church ; General Lehman, of the marine artillery, and 
two marshals bearing Greig's admiral's staff and five 
orders of knighthood ; eighteen stafi" officers, and three 
bearing naval standards, preceded the body, which was 
borne on a bier drawn by six horses, led by six bom- 
bardiers, and attended by twelve captains of ships, fol- 
lowed by their coxswains. Then came General Wrangel, 
governor of the city, with the nobles, citizens, the marshals 
with their staves, and a regiment of infantry with arms 
reversed, and its band playing one of those grand dead- 
marches which are peculiar to Russia. So, with a band 
of choristers preceding it, and amid the tolling of bells, 
the remains of Admiral Greig were conveyed to the great 
cathedral, and there lowered into their last resting-place, 
amid three discharges of cannon and musketry from the 
ramparts, the troops, and the fleet, where he was so well 
beloved and so much lamented. 

Every officer who attended had a gold ring presented 
to him by Catherine II., with the admiral's name and the 
day of his death engraved upon it ; and a magnificent 
monument has since been erected to mark the place where 
he lies — a man " no less illustrious for courage and naval 
skill, than for piety, benevolence, and every private 
virtue." 

His estate in Livonia is still in possession of his de- 
scendants. 

His son John died in China in 1793. Another son 
became Sir Alexis Greig, Admiral of the Russian fleet, 
and Knight of all the Imperial orders. In 1783 he 
studied at the High School of Edinburgh ; he served as a 
volunteer on board the Culloden under Admiral Trow- 



ST.R SAMUEL GREIG. Ill 

bridge, and commanded the Russian fleets at tlie sieges of 
Yarna and Anapa in 1828 ; though in 1801 he had been, 
exiled to Siberia for remonstrating with the Emperor 
Paul for his severity to certain British sailors. His son 
Woronzow Greig (also educated, I believe, at the High 
School of Edinburgh) was A.D.C. to Prince Menschicoff, 
and bore a flag of truce from Sebastopol to Lord Paglan. 
He died of a mortal wound on the desperate field of 
Inkermann. 



118 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 



Jfalb-Pars|al Cmtnt §ro(uiT. 



Ulysses Maximilian Brown, Field-Marslial of the armies 
of the Empress Maria Theresa, Governor of Prague, and 
Knight of the Golden Fleece, was born on the 24th of 
October, 1705. 

His father, Ulysses Baron de Brown and Camus, the 
representative and descendant of one of the most ancient 
families in Ireland, was then a Colonel of Cuirassiers in 
the service of Joseph T., Emperor of Austria, and was one 
of the many brave Irish gentlemen who, after the untor- 
tunate battle of Aughrim, the surrender of Galway, and 
capitulation of King James's army under St. Ruth, at 
Limerick, were forced to feed themselves by the blades of 
their swords in the seiwice of foreign countries. When 
Marshal Catinat and the Duke of Savoy laid siege to 
Valenza in 1696, they had no less than six battalions of 
Irish exiles in their army. Baron Brown had served 
under the Emperor Leopold I., who died in 1703 ; and by 
the Emperor Charles VI. had been created Count of. the 
Holy Boman Empire ; while his brother George received 
the same exalted rank, being at the same time a distin- 
guished general of infantry, colonel of a regiment of 
musketeers, and councillor of war. 

In his childhood Ulysses Maximilian was sent to the 
city of Limerick by his father, and there, for a few yeai-s, 
he pursued his studies at a public school, until his uncle, 
Count George Brown, sent for him, when only ten years 
of age, to join his regiment of infantry, which was then 
with the army marching into Hungary, under the famous 
and gallant Prince Eugene of Savoy, against the Turks, 
"who had invaded the Imperial frontier- Wiiii this 



FIELD-MARSHAL COtTNT BROWN. 113 



army the great Count Saxe was serving as a subaltern 
officer. 

The Turks had broken the peace of Carlovitz in 1715, 
conquered the Morea, declared war against Yenice, be- 
sieged Corfu, and spread a general alarm among the 
courts of Europe. The Emperor's mediation was rejected 
with disdain by Achmet III., the imperious Porte, whose 
army, 150,000 strong, hovered on the right bank of the 
Danube ; but Prince Eugene, with a small, well disciplined 
force, having passed the river in sight of the inactive 
Osmanli, encamped at Peterwaradin, on the confines of 
Sclavonia. Ulysses Maximilian Brown was with this 
army in the regiment of his uncle. 

A battle ensued on the 5th August, 1716, near Carlo- 
vitz, and the Turks were totally routed, with the loss of 
their Grand Vizier Ali, and 30,000 slain ; while fifty 
standards, 250 pieces of cannon, and all their baggage, 
were taken. Other, but minor victories followed, and in 
the month of June the brave Prince Eugene invested 
Belgrade, the key of the Ottoman dominions on the Hun- 
garian froDtier. For two months it was vigorously de- 
fended by 30,000 men, while the Turkish army, under 
the new Grand Vizier, was intrenched close by, in a semi- 
circle which stretched from the Danube to the Save, thus 
inclosing the troops of Eugene in the marshes between 
those rapid rivers. 

By war and disease the Imperialists sufi[ered fearfully ; 
fighting of the most desperate kind ensued daily ; and 
there, while yet a child, the little Irish boy was taught to 
handle his esj^ontoon, and became a witness of, if not an 
actor in, those military barbarities which have always 
blackened a war along the Ottoman frontier. 

It was apparent to Eugene that the Turks, by destroy- 
ing the bridge of the Save, might obstruct his retreat, 
surprise a body of his Austrians at Semlin, or cut off his 
artillery, which were bombarding the lower town of Bel- 
grade, while sickness and scarcity pressed severely upon 
his slender force ; thus it became evident that nothing but 
a decisive victory would save him from gradual destruc- 
tion. Already the Turks, 200,000 strong, were within 

I 



114 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

miisket-sliot, and would soon storm his lines, which were 
•defended by onl}^ 40,000 men, exclusive of the 20,000 who 
rere blocking up Belgrade. 

On a dark midnight — the 16th of August — after uniting 
his forces by firing three bombs, he attacked the mighty 
host of the Sultan Achmet — the most complete that 
Turkey had ever equipped for battle. Favoured by a 
thick fog, the Austrians broke through the slow and 
heavy Osmanli, stormed all their intrenchments at the 
point of the bayonet, turned their own guns upon them, 
and grape-shotted the turbaned fugitives, whose unwieldy 
army was totally routed, and fled, leaving every cannon 
and baggage -waggon behind. The surrender of Belgrade, 
two days after, was the immediate consequence of this 
brilliant victory, and the Peace of Passarovitz, which, 
under the mediation of Great Britain, was signed in July, 
1718, succeeded in establishing a twenty-five years' truce, 
and securing to Austria the western part of Wallachia, 
Servia, Belgrade, and part of Bosnia. 

After this battle, Ulysses Brown, then in his twelfth 
year, was sent to Borne, where he continued his studies at 
the Clementine College, for the period of four years. 

In 1721 he went to Prague, and in two years completed 
himself in the study of civil law. 

He then entered the Austrian army, and in 1723 
became a captain in the regiment of infantry commanded 
by his uncle. Count George Brown ; and such was his 
ardour and such his knowledge in the art of war, that 
only two years after, in 1725, we find him appointed to 
the lieutenant-colonelcy of the same corps. 

On the 15th of August in the following year he 
married Maria Philippina, Countess of Martinitz, the 
beautiful Bohemian heiress, and the last of an ancient and 
noble line. 

In 1730 he served in the expedition to Corsica, and by 
his bravery and example contributed greatly to secure the 
capture of Callansara, where he was severely wounded in 
the thigh. This successful expedition caused a rumoui' 
that the island was to be erected into a kingdom for the 
Chevalier de St. Ueorge — James VIII. of the Scottish 



FIELD-MARSHAL C0LT7T BHOWN. 115 

Jacobites ; and George II., ou being bribed by the 
Oenoese, prohibited his English subjects from furnishing 
any assistance to the troops or inhabitants. 

In 1732, Count Brown was made Chamberlain of the 
Austrian Empire : and in 1734 was appointed full colonel 
of infantry, and Italy was the next scene of his service. 

France had resolved on humbling the overweening 
power of the House of Hapsburg ; the venerable Marshal 
Villars crossed the Alps, and with a combined army 
of French and Spaniards, burst into Milan, overran 
Austrian Lombardy, and carrying victory wherever he 
marched, in two months' time left only Mantua under 
the flag of Charles VI. The latter made strenuous efforts 
to protect himself — to secure the passage of the Rhine 
against the Marshal Duke of Berwick on one hand, and to 
recover his power in Italy from Villars on the other. 
The Diet voted him 120,000 men; the Count de Merci 
marched 6000 of these to protect the important fortress of 
Mantua ; and with a force increased to 60,000 soldiers, 
drew towards the head of the Oglio and Po. 

Leaving his young wife at the court of Vienna, Count 
Brown accompanied this force with his regiment of 
German infantry ; and it was among the first of those 
brave battalions which effected the arduous passage of the 
Po near Santo Benedetto, where the Count de Merci so 
boldly and skilfully surprised the French troops, and 
drove them back at the bayonet's point, with the loss of 
all their ammunition, baggage, and the cities of Guastalla, 
Novella, and Mirandola, of which he immediately took 
possession. 

During this campaign Count Brown distinguished him- 
self on every occasion, but most particularly at the great 
battle of Parma, on the 29th of June, 1734. There a de- 
sperate hand-to-hand conflict ensued in front of the city^ 
on the high road which leads to Piacenza ; and after a 
struggle as deadly as Italy ever saw, the Austrians re- 
mained masters of the field; but the Count de Merci, 
their general, was mortally wounded by a musket-ball, 
and Count Brown and the Prince of Wirtemberg, the 
lieutenant-general, had their horses shot under them. The 
l2 



116 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

French made their most desperate stand at a farmhouse, 
from the walls of which " they mowed down whole com- 
panies of the Imperialists by grape and musket-shot. 
This dreadful conflict lasted for ten hours without inter- 
mission, when the enemy retired in good order towards 
the walls of Parma." On the field lay ten thousand 
corpges ; of the Imperialists there fell the commander-in- 
chief, seven generals, and three hundred and forty officers 
were killed and wounded. Thus ended an attack which 
the Count de Merci risked in direct opposition to the 
advice of Count Brown and other officers of experience. 
The Imperial army now fell back upon Guastalla, where 
it was the good fortune of Count Brown to save it and 
the cause of Charles YI. from total destruction. 

The Austrians, under the Prince of Wirtemberg, were 
posted between the Crostolo and the Po, near some strong 
redoubts at the head of one of their bridges ; and there, 
on the 19th of September, they were attacked by the 
French, when after a hard conflict of eight hours, during 
which Brown, then in his twenty-ninth year, charged 
repeatedly at the head of his regiment, the Austrians were 
driven back, with the loss of four standards, while the 
gallant Prince of Wirtemberg, old General Colmenaro, 
the Prince of Saxe Gotha, and many other brave men, 
were slain. 

Count Brown made incredible exertions to preserve 
discipline, and with his own regiment to cover the rear of 
the discomfited Imperialists, who were thus enabled to 
fall back in good order to a new and stronger position on 
the northward of the Po, where they kept the field until 
January in the ensuing year, when the wearied French 
and Spaniards retired into winter quarters. One of the 
most brilliant feats of the campaign was the destruction 
of the bridge which the Marshal Duke de Noailles had 
thrown over the Adige. At the head of his regiment the 
brave Irish soldier of fortune achieved this arduous task 
in sight of the whole French army, under a heavy dis- 
charge of cannon and musketry. Thus terminated the 
Lombardo campaign, in which Austria, if she did not lose 
tir honour, won but little glory, though in the two 



FIELD-MAESHAL COUNT BROWN. 117 

battles of Parma and Guastalla slie lost ten thousand 
soldiers. 

The French strengthened their forces, and a cruel edict 
was issued at Paris, ordaining all British subjects in 
France between the ages of fifteen and fifty to enlist in 
the Irish Brigade, or go to the galleys — an edict which 
was enforced with such rigour, that in fifteen days all the 
Parisian prisons were crowded with British residents, 
chiefly poor Scottish Jacobites ; but France soon found 
other and more worthy means of reinforcing her armies in 
Italy and on the Khine, than by resorting to such inhos- 
pitable tyranny. 

For his services in the Italian war, Count Brown re- 
ceived a general's commission in 1736 from the Emperor 
Charles VL, who, discouraged by his reverses, signified a 
desire for peace ; but it was scarcely negotiated, before 
he became involved in a new war that broke out on the 
confines of Europe and Asia. The rapid progress of the 
Russians against the Turks, and their capture of the 
Crimea, excited the ambition of Charles, who, by the 
treaty of 1726, was bound to assist Russia against the 
Porte ; and now that prophecy, so often propagated, was 
in every one's mouth, that the period fatal to the 
Crescent was arrived ! 

Again the Osmanli turned their arms against Hungary ; 
and to protect that ancient kingdom rather than to assist 
the Czarina (who demanded of Austria 10,000 horse and 
20,000 foot), Charles sent 8000 Saxon infantiy, under 
Field-Marshal Seckendorf and General Count Brown, with 
whom the Duke of Lorraine went as a volunteer. By the 
peculation of the commissai-ies and contractors, these 
forces suflTered incredible hardships, and their leaders 
found Gradisca, Bioc, even Belgrade, and all the Hun- 
garian frontier fortresses dilapidated, and incapable of 
being defended. More troops and 600,000 florins were 
promised to them from Vienna, but neither came. Thus 
Seckendorf and Brown found themselves before the Turks 
with a small army of recruits, destitute of horses, caissons, 
and all the munitions of war. On receiving 10,000 
florins, they raised 26,000 infantry, 15,000 horse^ and 



118 THE CAVALIERS OP FOETUNE. . 

4000 irregulars ; but tlie indecision of the Emperor, wlio 
interfered with all their arrangements, the nature of their 
forces, clamours among their soldiers, cabals among their 
officers, the severities they encountered, and the pressing 
ardour of the Osmanli, gave to the Imperial arms but a 
succession of humiliating defeats ; and though Brown's 
fiery energy captured many small fortresses, others of 
greater importance were lost by Seckendorf, and at last Bel- 
grade, the scene of our hero's earlier service, was besieged. 

Banjaluca, a strongly fortified town, which has two 
castles to defend it, and which stands on the frontier of 
Bosnia, at the confluence of the Verbas with the Save, 
was skilfully invested by the Austrians under the Prince 
of Hildburghausen, but he was compelled to raise the 
siege, and after a bloody conflict, was driven towards the 
Save by the Turks. 

Charles, alarmed for the safety of Austria, ordered 
Keckendorf and Brown to march through Servia, and 
form a junction with the prince, which they immediately 
did, after dispatching a reinforcement to Marshal Keven- 
hiiller. With only 20,000 men they fought a way 
through Servia, and made themselves masters of TJtzitza, 
after a short siege, and would have taken Zwornick, but 
for an inundation of the Drina. On the 16th of October 
they encamped on the southern bank of the Save. Thus, 
they arrived in time to share some of the fighting near 
Banjaluca, and on the retreat from thence the Austrian 
baggage, sick, and wounded, were only saved from the 
barbarous Mussulmans by the personal exertions of Count 
Brown, who secured that movement by his valour and 
example. 

Discouraged by the misfortunes of his army, Charles VI. 
resolved to end a strife in which his troops gathered 
nothing but disgrace ; and, leaving the quarrel to the 
mediation of France, he bequeathed to the Czarina the 
•whole brunt of the war. The ill-success of the Austrians 
•was attributed to the unfortunate Seckendorf, the victim 
of circumstances and the cabals of the Jesuits ; thus he 
was committed, for an unlimited time, to the gloomy 
Castle of Glatz, an old fortress on the mountains of 



PIELD-MARSHAL COUNT BROWN. 11& 

Silesia. On the peace of Belgrade being signed, Marshal 
Wallace was also sent prisoner to Zigieth, and Count 
Neuperg was placed in the Castle of Holitz ; and as these 
three generals were ordered to remain captive during the 
lifetime of the Emperor, no part of the stigma of their 
ill-success fell on their Irish compatriot, Brown, who, on 
his return to Yienna, in 1735, was created Field Marshal- 
lieutenant, and a member of the Aulic Council of War. 

In the following year, his friend and master, Charles * 
VI. (having unfortunately surfeited himself with mush- 
rooms), died. He was the last prince of the ancient 
House of Hapsburg, sixteenth Emperor of Germany, and 
eleventh King of Bohemia ; and the grave had scarcely 
closed over him, ere the disputed succession to his here- 
ditary dominions kindled another war in Europe. 

By the Pragmatic Sanction his ancient possessions were 
guaranteed to his daughter, the Archduchess Maria 
Theresa (Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, and wife of 
Francis Stephen, Duke of Tuscany), by Britain, Russia, 
Holland, France, Spain, and Prussia ; but the three last- 
named powers fell — as an old writer says — "upon the 
poor distressed orphan queen, like three wolves, without 
mercy or equity ;" and in defiance of their solemn league, 
the Bavarian Elector laid claim to Bohemia ; the sove- 
reigns of France, Poland, and Saxony demanded all the 
vast inheritance of Austria each for themselves ; and all 
prepared for open war, while Maria Theresa quietly took 
possession of her father's throne. 

At this startling crisis Count Brown was in command 
at Breslau. The first blow of this new and general con- 
test was struck by Frederick III. of Prussia, who, having 
at his disposal all the immense treasure which had been 
accumulated by the rigid economy of his politic father, 
together with 76,000 idle troops, for whom he had been 
left to find employment, now revived an ancient claim to 
Silesia, based upon such pretensions as the English kings 
of old advanced to the thrones of Scotland and France ; 
and suddenly marching twenty battalions of infantry and 
thirty-six squadrons of horse into the duchy, he took 
possession of Breslau, its capital, from which Count 



120 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

Brown was forced to retire, having only 3000 men, with 
whom he retreated towards Moravia, leaving small garri- 
sons in Glogau and Breig, which Frederick blockaded 
with six battalions. This was in the January of 1741. 

Frederick now offered to supply the Queen of Hungary 
(as Maria Theresa was styled) with money and troops to 
support her claims against the other violaters of the Prag- 
matic Sanction, provided she would cede to him the 
Silesian province. Aware of the danger of yielding to 
one pretender, she sent Count Neuperg (who, since the 
Peace of Belgrade, had been a captive) with an army to 
the assistance of the faithful Brown, who, after disputing 
every inch of Frederick's progress, had maintained the 
contest with him single-handed for two months. 

The King of Prussia sent a detachment of infantry 
across the Oder to attack Brown's garrison of 300 men in 
Namslau, where they surrendered in a fortnight. Leaving 
one regiment in Breslau, he marched against Brown's 
next garrison, consisting of 400 men, in Ohlau, under 
Colonel Formentini, who finding the place ruinous, and 
the Prussians overwhelming, capitulated. Then General 
Kleist invested Breig with five battalions and four 
squadrons. 

Count Neuperg, one of Austria's best generals, being a 
senior officer, assumed the command of the whole force, 
which he had first assembled in the environs of Olmutz, 
and sent General Lentulus to occupy the narrow defiles 
of Glatz in Silesia, and thus protect Bohemia. Neuperg, 
meanwhile, meditated operations on the Neiss, and his 
hussars cut off the King of Prussia's convoys and outposts 
in every direction. The skirmishes around Neiss were 
incessant, and in one cavalry encounter Frederick was 
nearly taken prisoner — a stroke which would have ended 
the war at once. After many manoeuvres and encounters, 
the armies of Neuperg and Frederick drew near each 
other, on the 10th of April, 1741, at Molowitz, a village 
in the neighbourhood of Neiss, where a desperate battle 
was foughfc. 

On this inauspicious day — inauspicious for the Austrian 
cause — General Count Brown (or Braiinj as the Kir.g of 



FIELD-MARSHAL COUNT BROWN. 121 

Prussia names him in his works) commanded the infantry. 
The scene of the encounter was within a league of the 
river Neiss, and the ground was mantled with snow ta 
the depth of two feet. The Prussian army consisted of 
twenty-seven battalions of infantry, twenty-nine squadrons 
of cavalry, and three of hussars. 

The Prussian infantry were, at that time, says Frede- 
rick, who had brought their discipline to perfection, 
" walking batteries ! The rapidity of loading tripled 
their fire, and made a Prussian equal to three adver- 
saries." They came on with such ardour, that Marshal 
Neuperg had to form his troops in order of battle under 
a cannonade from Frederick's artillery ; but the right 
wing of his cavalry (thirty squadrons), under Roemer, fell 
headlong on the Prussian left, and drove back their blue- 
coated dragoons. On they continued to press, with swords 
uplifted, until the steady fire of two grenadier battalions 
routed them, and slew the brave Kcemer as he led them 
to the charge for the third time. 

At this critical moment, the infantry under Brown 
rushed on, and, though unsupported by cavalry, made 
incredible efforts to break through Frederick's serried 
ranks ; and in this struggle the first battalion of his 
guards lost half its ofiicers, and no less than 800 men. 
For five hours the firing continued ; and, as ammunition 
failed, the dead were all turned on their faces, and their 
pouches emptied, to carry on the strife, which was only 
ended by Marshal Schwerin making a motion with his 
left, which threatened the Austrian flank. " This," says 
Frederick, in the History of his Own Times, "was the 
signal of victory, and the Austrian defeat — their rout 
was total." This was at six, p.m. 

Count Brown was severely wounded, and Maria Theresa 
had 180 officers, 7000 horse and foot, killed, and three 
standards, seven cannon, and 1200 prisoners taken, with 
3000 wounded. Brown, though faint with loss of blood, 
never left his saddle ; but, by his efforts at the head of 
the infantry, covered the retreat of the whole army, 
which JSTeuperg, who was also wounded, ordered to 
retire under the cannon of Neiss, leaving Frederick 



122 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

victorious on the field, where he remained for three 
weeks. 

Availing himself of this success, the victor, after a short 
siege, took Breig, removed his head-quarters to Strehlen, 
and, on driving 4000 Austrian hussars from the important 
pass of Fryewalde, began to recruit his army among the 
conquered Silesians. Ke-establishing himself in Breslau, 
on being joined by the Duke of Holstein, his army, con- 
sisting of forty-three battalions and seventy squadrons, 
would soon have cut off all communication between the 
troops of Neuperg and his supplies ; and moreover, would 
have formed a junction with the armies of France and 
Bavaria, which had now taken the field in his favour — 
the former under the famous marshal, Duke de Belleisle, 
and the latter under their Elector. The outposts of their 
allied enemies were now within eight German miles of 
Vienna, and the cause of the young and beautiful Maria 
Theresa seemed almost desperate. She retired to Pres- 
burg, where her appearance before the assembled Palatines, 
with an infant son in her arms, kindled such an enthu- 
siasm that, as one man, they drew their sabres, exclaiming 
•■' We will die for our sovereign, Maria Theresa !' 

She sent for Count Brown in 1743, to be present at 
her coronation, and, as a reward for his past sei-vices, 
made him a privy councillor of the kingdom of Bohemia. 

The brave Hungarian nobles now rose in arms, and old 
Count Palfy marched at the head of 30,000 men to re- 
lieve Vienna, the Governor of which. Marshal Keven- 
hUller, had only 12,000 men to resist the three armies of 
France, Prussia, and Bavaria, while the Marshals Neuperg 
and Brown covered the roads to Bohemia with 20,005 
men, as a protection against the kingdom of Bavaria, In 
all the operations of the Austrians, during the many en- 
counters and severe campaigns of 1742-3, Count Brown 
commanded the vanguard or first division, and always 
with honour. 

Prince Charles of Lorraine having succeeded Marshal 
Neuperg m command of the army, encountered the 
enemy near Braunau, and a desperate, but drawn battle 
(in which his forces suffered most) was fought, while 



FIELD-MARSHAL COUNT EEOW^T. 123 

Prince Lobcowitz, on marching from Bohemia, drove the 
French from all their posts and garrisons in the Upper 
Palatinate Then the combined forces of the Prince, 
Brown, and Lobcowitz, forced those of Marshal Broglio 
to abandon their strongly intrenched camp at Pladling, 
on the Danube, and to fall back in confusion on the 
Bhine, while the irregular horse, Croats, Pandours, and 
Poot Talpaches, harassed their rear-guard, and extermi- 
nated the stragglers. 

In this expedition Count Brown seized Deckendorf at 
the head of the vanguard, captured a vast quantity of 
baggage, and obliged the French, after immense slaughter, 
to abandon the banks of the Danube, which the whole 
Austrian army, under the Prince of Lorraine, passed in 
security on the 6 th of June. 

On this spot a pillar was afterwards erected, bearing, in 
the following inscription, an honourable testimony to the 
valour of the Irish hero : — 

*' Theresiae Austriacae Augustse Duce Exercitus, 

Carlo Alexandre Lothairingico, 

Septemdecim, superatis hostilibus villis, 

Captoque Deckendorfio, renitendibus undis, 

Resistentibus, Gallis, 

Duce exercitus Ludovico Borbonio Contio 

Transivit hie Danubium, 

Ulysses Maximilianus Brown, Campi Marashalus, 

Die 5<» Junii," a.d. 1743. 

When Marshal Broglio reached Donawert, in the 
Swabian circle, he was joined by 12,000 men, under the 
warlike Maurice Count de Saxe, afterwards Marshal 
General of France and Duke of Courland ; but finding his 
main body almost destroyed, instead of hazarding a battle, 
he retreated before Prince Charles and Brown to Heilbron, 
and there abandoning to them his artillery and baggage, 
retired with greater precipitation to Prague. 

Lorraine followed, and encamped in sight of them, 
along the hills of Girisnitz. The French marshals offered 
to surrender Prague, Egra, and all their captures in 
Bohemia, provided they were permitted to march home 
with the honours of war These offers were rejected with 



124 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

disdain; Prague was invested on all sides, and though 
the Marshal de Maillebois marched to its relief, he 
achieved nothing, for the Austrians possessed all the 
passes of the mountains, and he was compelled to retreat 
as a fugitive, harassed and galled by the troops of Prince 
Oharles, who left Prince Lobcowitz to watch the motions of 
the Dukes of Belleisle and Broglio in the beleaguered city. 

The latter of these marshals fled from his command in 
the disguise of a courier ; the former abandoned the city 
in a dark and cold December night, and, with 14,000 
men and 30 guns, made his way towards Alsace, enduring 
imheard-of miseries ; 900 men whom he left behind him 
surrendered at discretion ; and thus again the ancient 
capital of Bohemia reverted to the House of Austria, 
which, however, lost the Duchy of Silesia by the treaty 
•of Breslau, which ceded it for ever to the kingdom of 
Prussia. 

In the year 1743 Count Brown was sent by his 
Imperial Mistress to Worms as her plenipotentiary to 
George II. of Great Britain, with whose ministers he 
spared no pains to arrange the important alliance between 
the Courts of London, Vienna, and Turin. On this ser- 
vice he acquitted himself with an ability no way inferior 
to the courage he had displayed in so many fields. 

The arena of his next service was again in Italy, where 
the Austrian forces were still fighting against the Spa- 
niards, and pursuing the old war between the houses of 
Eourbon and Hapsburg. 

The Count Gages, who commanded the Spaniards in 
Bologna, having received instructions from his imperious 
queen to fight the enemy within three days, or resign, 
and to fight whether he was prepared or not, passed tho 
Parano in the beginning of February, and, on the 18th, 
attacked the Austrians under Count Traun, at Campo 
Santo, a town of Modena, where another drawn battle 
was fought, and both sides claimed the victory. Count 
Gages found himself obliged to repass the river, and retire 
into Romagna, where he intrenched himself, and remained 
undisturbed till October, when Prince Lobcowitz, having 
assumed command of the Austrian army, boldly advanced, 



FIELD-MARSHAL COUNT BROWN. 125 

and drove him back on Fano, It was at this crisis that 
Count Brown was sent by Maria Theresa to join her 
Aiistrians, whose ultimate object was the conquest of tha 
Bourbonic kingdom of Naples, to punish its king for 
violating a Jorced neutrality, and having joined Count 
Gages with 25,000 men. 

At this time the Empress-Queen engaged to maintain 
30,000 men in Italy, provided the King of Sardinia 
would pay another force of 45,000, while Britain was to 
send a naval squadron to co-operate by sea. Lobcowitz 
and Count Brown had established their head-quarters at 
Monte Rotondo, near Rome, when their final orders 
arrived to invade the kingdom of Naples. Breaking up 
the camp, and marching towards Viletri, the prince 
dispatched Count Brown, with a division of German 
infantry and another of Hungarian hussars, to pursue the 
Spaniards (who began to retreat) as far as the river 
Tronto, with the double purpose of harassing them and 
endeavouring to excite an insurrection among the wild 
mountaineers of the Abruzzo. In fulfilment of his orders. 
Brown distributed everywhere manifestos in the name 
of Maria Theresa, urging them to throw off the Spanish 
yoke, and place themselves under her protection, promising, 
at the same time, to banish for ever the obnoxious Jews 
from Naples ; but these proclamations were unheeded by 
the Abruzzesi, who evinced no inclination to revolt. 

Meanwhile his commander. Prince Lobcowitz, had 
halted in the marquisate of Ancona, being somewhat 
uncertain in which direction to march. Pushing on, 
Count Brown crossed the Tronto, which separates the 
kingdom of Naples from the Papal territory. Entering, 
he gave all to fire and sword as he advanced. His route 
lay along the shore of the Adriatic by the high road to 
Naples, which crosses the river Potenza near its mouth, 
and lies on the confines of Ascoli. He laid most of the 
small towns in the Abruzzo under contribution. Some 
were fined in money — others in a certain quantity of 
barley bread ; but his necessary severity was greatly tem- 
pered by mercy. His advanced guard of hussars had 
daily skirmishes with the Spanish cavalry. 



126 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

The passes being deep witli snow, so as to be almost 
impassable for artillery and baggage, Lobcowitz gave up 
all thought of entering Naples by the coast road, which 
was the only clear one, and very unwisely recaired Count 
Brown with his forces ; and as soon as they joined, 
began his march by the way of Umbria and the Campagna 
di Koma, with 6000 horse and 20,000 foot. Among the 
former were 2000 hussars ; among the latter were some 
irregulars, or free companies of what Buonamici, in his 
Commentaries, styles "Condemned persons and de- 
serters, who, despairing of pardon, and urged by the 
prospect of plunder, panted for an opportunity of coming 
to blows with the enemy." This small army advanced in 
three columns, two days' inarch apart, that the people 
might not be oppressed. Brown commanded the first. 
Advancing by Spoleto, Terni, and Narni, they reached 
Castellana, and held a council of war, at which Brown, 
the Cardinal Alessandro Albani, and the Bishop of Gurck 
assisted. A stormy debate ensued, and nothing was 
decided upon. 

Meanwhile the alarmed King of Naples, with the com- 
bined armies of Naples and Spain, was encamped on the 
hill of Anagni, in the Campagna di Roma. The Spaniards 
under Count Gages consisted of eleven battalions of in- 
fantry, three regiments of cavalry, under the Duke of 
Atri, five hundred horse-archers, and three hundred of 
the Duke of Modena's archer-guards (archers, of course, 
but by name) ; with the Irish Brigade, and a regiment 
of hussar deserters. The Neapolitan army consisted of 
eighteen battalions of foot and five regiments of horse. 
The vanguard was composed of light-armed mountaineers. 
The artillery was commanded by the veteran Conte di 
Oazola. 

Lobcowitz and Brown now began their march towards 
Home ; crossed the Tiber at Teverone, and halted at 
Marino, where of old stood the villa of Caius Marius. 
After a great deal of severe marching, counter-marching, 
and skirmishing, the prince resolved on assailing the 
«hiefs of the allies in their head-quarters, which they had 



FIELD-MAESHAL COUNT BROWN. 127 

established in Viletri ; and this daring enterprise he com- 
mitted to Brown, his most active and able general. 

In Yiletri, the King of Naples and the Duke of Mo- 
dena, with most of the nobles and officers of their troops, 
had quartered themselves, and taken every measure to 
secure and fortify the town, which is situated upon a 
high mountain, surrounded by deep valleys, all difficult 
of access, but beautifully planted with vineyards and 
groves of olive-trees. It had several gates, a Minorite 
convent, and a town-house, which crowned the summit of 
the hill. Charles of Naples occupied the noble palace of the 
Ginnetti family ; adjacent to which were spacious gardens, 
a lane, and a bridge, all guarded by soldiers, and barricaded, 
and planted with brass cannon. The gardens communi- 
cated with the Yalmonte road, and thereon were posted 
two battalions of the Walloon Guard. The custody of 
the Roman gate was committed to the Royal Regiment of 
Horse, and the Duke of Modena's Life Guards, while at 
the foot of the eminence, to sweep all approaches, the 
most of the artillery were posted near the Capuchin 
convent. The right flank of the town was occupied by 
Spanish and Italian infantry ; the left by the cavalry, 
the Irish Brigade, and four battalions of the Walloon 
Guard. 

The Austrians had intrenched themselves on a hill, 
only a mile distant ; and there, by means of spies and de- 
serters. Count Brown had accurately informed himself of 
all the arrangements which had been made in Viletri ; 
but, brave as he was, on Prince Lobcowitz first proposing 
this hazardous duty to him, he was struck by the too evi- 
dent desperation of the service. 

" The Austrian forces," said he, " are insufficient for 
attempting so daring an enterprise ; it is impossible to 
reach the Neapolitan cantonment undiscovered, and I do 
not think we could force it without imminent danger, 
and a warm reception. In my opinion, the easier and the 
safer way would be to make a general attack with all our 
strength upon the enemy's works," 

Brown afterwards adopted the general's opinion, that a 



128 THE CAVALIERS OP PORTUNIS. 

night attack was best ; and the time and manner he pro 
posed met with the consent of all who were present at 
their conference. 

Selecting 6000 men, he chose the 10th of August for 
this desperate expedition ; and Lobcowitz, to conceal all 
knowledge of the route chosen by the count in attacking 
Viletri, threw a chain of picquets and videttes over a 
vast extent of country. In silence, and without the 
sound of drum or bugle, he marched from the camp ; and 
none of his troops, save the Marquis de Novati, his se- 
cond in command, were informed of the object until they 
reached a valley at the foot of the mountain, near a 
church dedicated to St. Mary. The darkness of the night 
(says Castruccio Buonamici) was rendered more dense by 
the shade of the overhanging vines. 

At this moment, during a temporary halt, it was re- 
ported to the count that a soldier had deserted, and 
perhaps to the enemy. The Marquis de Novati fearing 
they were betrayed, urged a retreat, but Brown ex- 
claimed: — 

" No ; I am determined to advance. The die of war 
has been thrown !" 

And promising his soldiers ample rewards, he exhorted 
them to behave like brave men. Pushing on with ardour, 
the attack was commenced just as day began to break, by 
the cavalry outposts being cut to pieces, and the left flank 
of Viletri being furiously assailed, the infantry pushing 
on through walls and vineyards, and the Htmgarian 
horsemen with lance and sabre hewing a passage to the 
streets. A regiment of Italian dragoons were put to 
flight. The brave Irish Brigade attacked the advancing 
Austrians with such fury, as to hold them in check for 
half-an-hour, but in the end were nearly cut to pieces at 
the Neapolitan Gate. Marsiglia of Sienna, a Knight of 
Malta, defended a cottage with fifty dismounted dragoons, 
and displayed incredible bravery. The Walloon Guards 
were unable to assist the Irish until they were nearly all 
slain. Colonel Macdonel, eleven captains, thirty subal- 
terns, and a heap of Irish dead, blocked up the gate they 
had defended. The fury, the firing, and the slaughter oa 



FIELD-MARSHAL COUNT BROWN. 12S 

all sides of the hill were frightful. The King of Naples 
put himself at the head of his guards, crying, '- Remember 
your king and your ancient valour." But his efforts 
were vain ; the gates were all forced, his troops driven 
out, and nine of their standards taken. The street which 
led to the Ginnetti palace was set in flames : the Duke of 
Atri was nearly burned alive, and General Count Mariano 
was captured in bed. Brown's second in command, the 
Marquis de Novati, was taken prisoner, and finding his 
troops, who were busy plundering, about to be sur- 
rounded by those of Count Gages, he ordered his drums 
to beat a retreat, and retired to the intrenched camp of 
Lobcowitz. In this expedition he killed and captured 
3000 men, hamstrung 800 horses, and brought off oOO 
more laden with plunder ; one general, one hundred other 
officers, twelve standards, and three small colours. His 
own loss was only 500. 

Disheartened by the partial failure of this affair — for the 
King of Naples had escaped them — destitute of forage 
for their cavalry and artillery, and encumbered with 
many sick and wounded men, Lobcowitz and Brown find- 
ing themselves unable to hazard a general engagement, 
and that autumn was at hand, became desirous of retreat- 
ing j and after pillaging Valmonte and cutting the Duke 
of Portocarrara's Italian corps to pieces, transporting 
their baggage and sick by sea to Tuscany, they threw a 
pontoon bridge across the Tiber beside the Ponte MoUe, 
and commenced a retreat in the night, demolishing all 
bridges as they left them behind, to bar pursuit. 

The count was named " the right hand" of Lobcowitz 
during the arduous operations which ensued ; and, by his 
usual activity and bravery, he frequently repulsed the 
pursuing Spaniards on the retreat from Yiletri, during 
the fortification of the Austrian camp at Viterbo, the 
retreat from thence through the forests of Orvietto, with 
a force now diminished to 13,000 men ; the assault upon 
Nocera, where Count Soro and 900 Italian deserters fell 
into the hands of Count Gages, who sent them in chains 
to San Giovanni, where every fifth man was shot — and 
many other similar affairs, until the Imperialists reached 



130 THE CAVALIKP.S OF FORTUNE. 

their winter quarters at Rimiui, Cesano, and Forli, on 
wliicli the Spaniards and Neapolitans retired to Pesei'o 
and Fano. 

In the beginning of the following year, 1745, he was 
recalled from Italy by Maria Theresa, and sent into Ba- 
varia at the head of a body of troops against the youi; 
Elector, who was in alliance with France. He took tho 
town of Vilshosen by assault, and captured 3600 pri- 
Boners : 2000 were slain on both sides, and 6000 Hessians 
were forced to lay down their arms, and enter the British 
service for the campaign against the unfortunate Prince 
Charles Stuari. The count would have peribrmed many 
other feats of equal brilliance, had the war against Bavaria 
not been terminated suddenly by the terrified Elector, 
who, at the same time that Vilshosen was taken, lost 
Pfarrkirchen, Landshut, and had all his magazines de- 
stroyed, which compelled him to sign the treaty of Fussen, 
and in April to conclude a peace with the Empress-Queen. 
In the same year Count Brown was appointed General 
of the Austrian Ordnance. 

Though peace had been made with the Bavarian Elector, 
there was no rest for the soldier of fortune, who was im- 
mediately dispatched a third time to Italy, with 18,000 
men, against the Spaniards, by Maria Theresa, whose hus- 
band had now been elected Emperor of Germany. He 
joined the Prince of Lichenstein, who was carrying on 
the war against the still -allied French and Spaniards 
under the Marshal de Maillebois ; and one of his first 
essays in the new Italian campaign was to attempt the 
recovery of the Milanese, out of which, solely by his 
activity, the allies were ultimately driven. 

He also formed a daring scheme to cut off the commu- 
jiication between the main body of the Spanish army and 
their forces under the Marquis de Castellar, by detaching 
General Nadasti along the left bank of the Po, with 
orders to amuse the enemy by countermarches, and by- 
pretending to lay a pontoon bridge across the river at 
Casale-maggiore, a town in Lombardy. While the de- 
ceived Spaniards were busy watching these feigned mo- 
'"^lifl, their guards, who occupied the right bank of the 



FIELD-MAESHAl. COUNT BROWN. 131 

Po, were surprised and utterly cut to pieces by the Aus- 
trian irregulars ; and then Count Brown crossed the 
river at Borgoforte, near the strong Venetian castle, and 
pushing on from thence, captured Luzzara, a Parmese 
town four miles north of the scene of his services twelve 
years before — Guastalla, which he immediately invested, 
and took by assault, when Marshal Count Corasin sur- 
rendered, with 2000 prisoners. At this very time Cas- 
tellar, with 7000 Spaniards, hovered on one flank of the 
count's little force, and Gages was advancing on the other ; 
two movements by which his division must have been 
overwhelmed, had not the Prince of Lichenstein advanced 
to his support ; and on uniting they took Parma. 

At the battle of Piacenza Brown performed one of his 
most brilliant deeds, by destroying the right wing of the 
allies under the Marshal de Maillebois. This great en- 
counter took place in front of the city, which stands (m 
an extensive plain near the right bank of the Po ; earthen 
ramparts surround, and a castle protects it. Count 
Gages' army abounded in cavalry ; and besides its natiu'al 
strength, his position was defended by the cannon of the 
city ; so there was no hope of starving him out of his 
trenches — but battle was given on the 16th of June. 
The French, who had encamped without the Antonian 
gate, formed in three lines, and were the right wing of 
the enemy, with sixteen battalions of Spaniards under 
Lieutenant-General Arambure ; the centre consisted of 
nine battalions, the flower of the Spanish infantry ; the 
left were the regiments of Naples and Genoa. 

The battle began at daybreak, and the Spaniards 
charged with such fury that an Austrian battery, consist- 
ing of twenty-six pieces, was taken by Arambure, who 
was dangerously wounded. Count Gages broke their left, 
when 250 gallant men of Prince Eugene's dragoons bore 
them back, and struck a panic into the French, amongst 
whom the Marshal de Maillebois was fighting on foot. 
These dragoons were led by Count Brown, and by their 
charge the Spanish and Walloon Guards were routed, 
trampled under hoof, and destroyed. The allies made 
a precipitate retreat. Two days after the battle thej- 
k2 



133 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

v/eve reviewed, and found to Lave lost 3220 who were 
killed, 4460 wounded, and 915 prisoners. The Count de 
Brostel, General of the French artillery, the Chevalier de 
Tesse, two Spanish lieutenant-generals, and the com- 
mander of the Swiss, were among the slain. Ten pieces 
of cannon and thirty pairs of colours were left upon that 
sanguinary field, where the Austrians buried 3.500 of 
their own dead. The King of S[)ain survived these 
tidings but a few days. 

On the 9th of August the combined French, Spanish, 
ind Neapolitan armies attempted to cro.-s the Po at the 
Lombra and Tydone. Count Sabelloni, with 7000 Aus- 
trians, made a noble stand against them, from nine in the 
evening till ten the next morning, when General Botta 
and Count Brown hastened to his relief, and the conflict 
began again with renewed fury ; and after a terrific cross 
fire of cannon and musketry, and a furious melee, in 
which Spaniard, Frenchman, Swiss, Italian, and Austrian 
soldiers were all mingled, with musket, sword and bayonet 
— no man valuing life or limb when compared with the 
glory of the day — the three allies were driven back, leav- 
ing 8000 killed, wounded, and prisoners, with nineteen 
guns and twenty standards, on the field. 

The Austrians lost General Barenclau (whose courage 
was ever rash) with 4000 men. Counts Brown and Pal- 
lavicini were wounded. The Spaniards lost the flower of 
their officers, and among them the young and noble 
Colonel Don Julio Deodato of Lucca, an accomplished 
cavalier and scholar. 

Marshal Maillebois and Count Gages retreated to Genoa, 
from thence to Nice, and from thence to Parma ; aban- 
doning Piacenza, of which the Austrians took immediate 
possession, and wherein they placed 9000 men, most of 
whom were suffering from wounds received in previous 
battles. Despite his wound. Brown remained at the 
liead of his division and with the army which pursued 
the Bourbon allies towards Genoa, taking every place by 
storm or capitulation on their route, except Tortona and 
the mandamento or fortified town of Gavi. 

On the Austrian vanguard under Count Brown (who 



FIELD-MARSnAL COUNT BROWN. 133 

commanded during the absence of Count Botta, tlie new 
commander-in-chief) reaching Santo Pietro d' Arena, a 
suburb of Genoa, the city became filled with consterna- 
tion, and the senators sent the Marshal di Campo Esceria 
to learn from him on what conditions he would receive 
the city. But for some private reason Brown declined t<j 
admit him to an audience. Baynerio Grimaldi and Au- 
gustino Lomellino were next sent to the Austrian camp 
and the count demanded the object of their visit. 

" General," they replied, " the people of Genoa liave made 
war on no one, and least of all upon the Empress-Queen 
of Hungary, for whom they have ever entertained a pro- 
found veneration. Had they been her enemies, would 
their ambassador have been at this very time in her city 
of Vienna? Hard necessity forced us to embi-ace an 
alliance with the Bourbons, and it was with no other 
view than to defend ourselves, for we would be the vilest 
of mankind to sutler our Fatherland to be taken tamely 
from us. There can be no reason now, noble general, to 
distress those who have only armed them in their own 
defence, or treat as enemies the Genoese, who have com- 
mitted no act of hostility." 

" Seigneurs," replied Count Brown, " you have acted 
the part of our most bitter enemies, for without your 
assistance what could the united armies of the Bourbons 
liave effected 1 You sent them auxiliaries ! you supplied 
them witli provisions; and after six years' striving to 
cut a passage into Italy, it was yoit Genoese, alone, who 
opened up a path to them, enabling them to essay the 
ruin of the Austrians in Venice and in Lombardy. 
Begone ! and without loss of time inform yom* senate to 
say no more of friendship for the present, but submit ta 
us on those terms which my friend. General Gorani, will 
lay before you in writing." 

Lest Brown should have the entire glory of reducing 
Genoa, General Botta hastened from Novi to resume the 
command, and he also required the immediate sui-rend 
of the city. 

The allies having left 4000 men to defend the pass oi 
La Bochetta, in the northern Apennines, a gorg*"' t-hich 



134 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

"has always been considered as the key of Italy on tlie 
Bide of Genoa, and which is well defended by several 
redoubts, Count Brown advanced against it, and stormed 
the ravine, though it is so narrow that in some places 
only three men could march abreast. He attacked and 
routed another party on his way to Ponte Decimo ; and 
after this, the Genoese, finding themselves completely 
abandoned, gave up all their gates, posts, and ai-seiials, 
and paid 50,000 genovines to the victorious Austrian 
troops. After this, Count Brown was appointed the 
generalissimo in Italy; and all thought of invading 
Naples having been completely laid aside for the time, it 
was arranged by the British and Austrian ambassadors, 
in a conference which they held in Santo Pietro d' Arena, 
that without loss of time he should make an invasion of 
Provence, into which the allies had retired. In obedience 
to this desire, after detaching General Gorani (who soon 
after was unfortunately killed) to fall upon the enemy's 
rear, and leaving the Marquis de Bott-a at Genoa with 
18,000 men, he embarked on board a squadron consisting 
of three ships and eight pinnaces, commanded by the 
Scottish Captain Forbes, and sailing from Santo Pietro 
d'Arena, had a quick passage to Yilla Franca, from 
whence he walked on foot to Nice, a two days' journey. 
He was disguised, for in such a country, convulsed as it 
was by war, assassination, and disorder, every precaution 
was necessary for personal safety. 

Having waited on the King of Sardinia, and settled 
their plan of future operations, he waited at Nice only 
until Captain Forbes brought over the Austrian artillery, 
(fee, from Genoa, and until the forces collected for him 
by the Sardinians were reinforced by the troojjs from 
Piedmont, Milan, Genoa, and those which had been 
blocking up Tortona ; and while they were collecting, at 
the head of a small force he reduced, by assault, Mont 
Albano, in the county of Nice. 

In triumph, and in defiance of the French troops 
under the Marshal Duke de Belleisle, ho passed the Var 
on the 9th of November, with a fine army, consisting oi 
forty-five squadrons of horse, and sixty-three battalions of 



PIELD-MARSHAL COUNT EROV/N. 135 

foot — in all, 50,000 men. Among tlieso were twenty 
regiments of the Piedmontese. The wild Croats on their 
swift grey horses, and the dashing Hungarian Hnssars. 
clad in theii' brown uniforms, formed his vanguard ; and 
fell with such fury upon the French with their long 
lances and sharp sabres, that they swept all before them ; 
while the British sailors, under Vice-Admiral Medley, 
drove the enemy from Fort Laurette, and thereby secured 
his left flank. Thus safely and victoriously he paspsd the 
Yar, and entered Provence, the ancient patrimony of the 
House of Anjon. 

With the assistance of a British bomb-ketch, he re- 
duced and took 500 soldiers in the little isles of Saint 
Marguerite and Saint Honorat, on the south-east coast of 
France, opposite to Antibes, which he invested by land, 
while Admiral Medley cannonaded it by sea. Leaving 
Baron Roth with twenty-four battalions to jDress the siege 
against the Chevalier de Sade, he made himself master of 
Braguignan, with the loss of 2000 men, laid all the open 
country under contribution, and threw forward his out- 
posts as far as the river Argens. During these arduous 
operations he was seized by a fever, which confined him 
to a camp-bed, but he soon relinquished it for hif 
saddle. 

The batteries opened against Antibes on the 20th of 
September. It was cannonaded for thirty- six days, and 
all its houses were demolished ; but on collecting a 
numerous army, the Marshals De Belleisle and De 
Boufflers advanced to its relief, while other forces, amount- 
ing to sixty battalions, were hastening forward from 
^'landers. Meanwhile the Genoese, driven to despair by 
;o extortions and severity of the Marquis de Botta, re- 
solved to break their Austrian fetters or die in the 
attempt. The circumstance of a German ojQQcer striking 
an Italian who refused to drag a mortar to which he was 
harnessed, kindled a flame ; and all the Genoese rushed 
to arms, and forced the arsenals. The city barriers were 
stormed, the Austrians driven out, and two regiments, 
who defended the gate of Santo Thomaso, were cut to 
pieces. All these circumstances combined, obliged O^XLvt 



136 TUE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

Brown to i*aise the siege of Antibes, abandon tbe projected 
expedition against Toulon, and repass the Yar. This was 
executed on the 23rd Januaiy, 1747, but not witliout 
considerable loss, for his rearguard was furiously attacked 
Ordering a column of horse and foot into Lonibardy to 
join Count Schulemberg, he lined the southern bank ol 
the Var with his main body, and kept the French under 
the great Belleisle completely in check, till the King of 
Sardinia secured all the mountain defiles, to prevent them 
from penetrating into Piedmont. 

Brown still continued that masterly retreat which ex- 
cited the admiration of all military men, and even of his 
enemy, the brave Belleisle, who followed him across the 
Var on the 25th May, and retook Mont Albano, Villa 
Franca, and Ventimiglia, from his garrisons, driving back 
forty-six Piedmontese battalions with terrible slaughter at 
the pass of Exilles, where the Chevalier de Belleisle 
(brother of the maryhal), Knight of St. John of Jerusalem, 
fell, pierced with three wounds. Meanwhile Brown, with 
a force diminished to 28,000, continued his retreat 
towards Finale and Savona. The despatch, which was 
sent to him by Major- General Colloredo, detailing the 
affair at Exilles, was published in the London Gazette. 
In Lombardy he ordered two intrenched camps to be 
formed j one to hold 14,000 men, to guard the banks of 
the Tanaro ; the other to hold 11,000, and guard the Po, 
near Pavia ; but fatigue and want of food soon compelled 
all to seek quarters for the winter. The King of Sar- 
dinia marched to Turin ; Brown established his head- 
quarters at Milan, after winning the praise of all Europe 
by his skilful operations in Provence. While here, by 
the severity of his remonstrance, he forced Mai-shal Schu- 
lemberg to abandon his important enterprise against 
Bisignano, and draw off his division to assist the King of 
Sardinia in covering Piedmont and Lombardy. 

The remainder of that year he occupied by innumerable 
skirmishes and movements in defending the Italian States 
of Maria Theresa ; among these (after the great review at 
Coni) was the march tipon the Dermont, the assault by 
the French uiiou Mai so? Meau, the attack upon forty- 



FIELD-MARSHAL COUNT BROWX. 137 

three French battalions who were intrenched near Yilla 
Franca, and other affairs, until the peace so happily signed 
in 1748, when he was sent by his mistress to Nice, where, 
in conjunction with the Duke de Belleisle and the Marquis 
de la Minas, he skilfully adjusted certain difficulties which 
fjad arisen in fulfilling the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. In 
^ward for his many great and gallant service3, tlie Em- 
press-Queen now made him Governor of Transylvania 
vhere he won the love and admiration of the people V 
Jiis justice, affability, and honourable bearing. 

In 1752 he was made governor of the city of Pi'ague, 
and coramander-in chief of all the troops in the kingdom 
of Bohemia ; and in the following year the King of 
Poland, as Elector of Saxony, honoured him with the 
Order of the White Eagle, the collar of which is a gold 
chain (to which a silver eagle is attached), and first worn 
by Udislaus V. on his marriage with a daughter of the 
Duke of Lithuania. In 1754 he was raised to the rank 
of Marshal of the Empire. 

After five years of peace the clouds of war again began 
to gather on the Prussian frontier, and Marshal Brown 
was summoned for the last time to the field. A quarrel 
having ensued between the courts of Berlin and Vienna, 
the warlike King of Prussia became alarmed by the 
hostile preparations that were made along the Livonian 
frontier, and resolving to anticipate the designs of his 
enemies, in 1756 iuA^aded Saxony, and made himself 
master of Dresden. On the first tidings of this invasion, 
Marshal Brown put himself at the head of the army of 
Prague, and marched to relieve the Saxons ; but this 
movement was anticipated by Frederick, who left 40,000 
men to continue the blockade of Pirna on the left bank of 
the Elbe (where Augustus III. of Poland was shnt up), 
and penetrated into Bohemia at the head of 24,000 
soldiers. 

Brown encamped at Kolin, while his compatriot, Prince 
Piccolomini, was posted at Konigingratz. From Kolin 
he marched on the 23rd of September to the fine old city 
of Budyn, which was surrounded by walls, and contains 
the ancient fortress of Hassenberg. Here he endeavoured 



138 THE CAVALlEllS OF FOliTUNE. 

to concert measures with the Saxons for securing thoir 
freedom ; but Frederick, on being joined by another 
column of his army, under the great Scottish Marshal 
Keith, marched to encounter him. 

Passing the Egra, Count Brown encamped at Lowo- 
sitz, on the Elbe, and near the Saxon frontier, and there 
the King of Prussia came in sight of his army, in position, 
at daybreak on the 1st of October, with 65 squadrons, 
26 battalions, 102 pieces of cannon, which formed in 
order of battle as they advanced, in that steady manner 
for which the Prussians had now become so famous. The 
infantry were formed in two lines, and the cavalry in 
three in their rear. Frederick's right wing occupied a 
village at the foot of the Kadostitz, a wooded mountain ; 
and on the Homolkaberg, in front of it, he had placed a 
battery of heavy guns ; his left wing rested on the Lo- 
boschbergj and his centre occupied the fertile valley 
between. 

The high and steep face of the Loboschberg was covered 
by vines, and intersected by many stone walls. Among 
these Marshal Brown advanced a large body of Croats, 
with several battalions of Hungarians to sustain them ; a 
deep ravine and rugged rivulet lay between the army of 
Frederick and the Austrians, which consisted of 72 
squadrons, 52 battalions, and 98 pieces of ordnance, 
being 70,000 men. Brown formed them in two lines, 
with his horsemen on the wings. He planted cannon in 
the village of Lowositz, and in redoubts on the level 
ground before it. 

At seven in the morning, and during a dense fog, the 
battle began between the Prussian left and the Croats on 
the Loboschberg, who continued firing till noon, when 
Frederick, seeing that Brown's right was his weakest 
point, marched from the summit of the mountain and 
irove down the Croats and Hungarians from the vine^ 
yards into the plain and ravine below. The marshal, 
believing that the fortune of the day depended on the 
retention of Lowositz, threw his retii'ing right wing 
into the village, where it soon gave way. He then led 
forward his left, but the infantry fell into confusion at 



FIELD-MAKSHAL COUNT BROV/N. 139 

the village of Sulowitz, being exj)osed to a dreadful fire of 
shot and shell from redoubts and field-pieces, gi'ape, ca- 
nister, hand-grenades, and musketry, which mowed them 
down like grass, and drove them back in disorder ; the 
marshal then ordered a retreat, which he conducted in so 
masterly a manner, that no effort was made to harass him. 
He fell back at three in the afternoon to a new position, 
so well chosen that Frederick dared not follow, but con- 
tented himself with keeping his line behind the ravine of 
Lowositz, though by sending forward a body of cavalry 
under the Prince of Bavern, he turned the marshal's left 
flank, a manoeuvre which compelled him to re-pass the 
Egra, and again occujDy his old camp at Budyn. 

Such was the battle of Lowositz, where the marshal 
left 4000 of his men dead on the field, and in his retreat 
had to blow up his magazine, while the Prussians had 
only 653 killed and 800 wounded. Having failed to 
relieve the Saxons, he marched to Lichtendorf, near 
Schandau, to join the King of Poland, and made an 
attempt to force back the Prussians at the head of 8000 
chosen soldiers ; but the effort proved ineffectual, and 
Augustus III. was compelled to capitulate, and deliver 
17,000 men and eighty pieces of cannon into the hands of 
Frederick — a mortification as bitter to the marshal as it 
was to the Polish monarch. 

On the 14th he retired towards Bohemia. The Prussian 
hussars followed his rearguard, and put 300 Croats to the 
sword. For his services he now received the Collar of 
the Golden Fleece — one of the first of European knightly 
orders. 

In 17^7 a confederacy was completed to punish Frede- 
rick of Prussia for his invasion of Saxony. France sent 
80,000 men to the Phine, under the Marshal d'Estrees ; 
60,000 Pussians threatened Livonia ; the Swedes gathered 
on the Pomeranian frontier ; and Maria Theresa mustered 
150,000 soldiers, the most of whom were stationed iu 
Prague, under Prince Charles of Lorraine and the Mar* 
shals Brown and Daun. The Austrians were then formed 
into four divisions — one under Marshal Brown, at Budyn ; 

second under the Duke dAremberg, at Egra ; a thirds 



140 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

under Count Konigsegg, at Riclitenberg ; a foiu'th under 
Marshal Daun, in Moravia. Undeterred by this vast 
array against him, Frederick in April marched straight 
upon Prague, and driving before him a column under 
Marshal Schwerin, attacked Brown at Budyn, before 
Daun's division could join him from Moravia. On find- 
ing his flank turned, Brown fell back upon the Bohemian 
capital, and Frederick, leaving one division of his army 
under Marshal Keith, followed him fast with the rest, 
and gave battle to the Austrians on the 6th of May, at 
dawn in the morning. 

The Imperialists under Marshal Brown were 80,000 
strong ; his left wing rested on the Zisk])erg towards 
Prague ; his right on the hill of Sterboli. In the front 
were steep and craggy mountains, which no cavalry could 
climb or artillery traverse ; but the deep vale at their 
foot was lined by hussars and hardy Hungarian infantry. 
The battle was commenced by Lieutenant-General the 
Prince of Schonaich assailing the Austrian right with 
sixty-five squadrons of cavalry ; a movement which Brown 
skilfully repulsed by drawing off his cavalry from tlie left, 
and overwhelming the prince by the united rush of one 
hundred and four squadrons. Thus outflanked, they were 
repulsed, "after two charges, until General Zeithen hurled 
the Austrians back upon their infantry by a magiiiflcent 
charge of twenty squadrons of hussars. 

The battalions of Prussian grenadiers were routed by a 
discharge of twelve-pounders loaded with musket- shot, and 
the noble Marshal Schwerin, who, seizing the colours, 
placed himself on foot at their head, was shot through the 
heart ; but his officers rallied the troops, and assailed the 
Austrian right, at the same moment that Frederick broke 
through their centre, and drove it towards Prague. A 
desperate struggle with the bayonet now ensued between 
the Austrian left and the Prussian right under Prince 
Henry : and Marshal Brown, while in act of issuiug orders 
to an aid- de-camp, received a deadly wound in the body ; 
and as he could ill brook the double mortification of a de- 
feat and of resigning the command to Prince Charles of 
Lorraine, it became mortal. He was compelled to leave 



FIELD-MARSHAL COUNT BEOWN. 141 

tlie field, from which his right wing fled to Maleschitz, 
while the left followed the centre in hojijeless disorder to 
Prague, leaving the victory to the Prussians, who by their 
own account had 3000 killed and GOOO wounded (by 
another account, 18,000 killed), 397 officers fell, many of 
them high in rank ; 8000 Austrians were slain, 9000 
taken prisoners, and 50,000 were shut up in Prague, 
while all the cavalry fled to Beneschau, and joined Mar- 
shal Daun. Such was the terrible and disastrous battle 
of Prague, and seldom has the sun set upon such a scene 
of sufiering or slaughter as the field presented, for thei-e 
were more than twenty thousand killed and wounded men 
lying upon it at six in the evening ! 

Marshal Brown was conveyed by his soldiers into 
Prague, where he endured the greatest torture from his 
wound, which was aggravated by the bitterness of being 
disabled at such a critical time. Thus by the agitation 
and bitterness of his mind it became fatal, and fifty-one 
days after the battle he expired of mingled agony and 
chagrin, on the 26th of June, 1757, at the age of fifty- 
two. 

Thus died Austria's most able general and diplomatist 
— and one of Ireland's greatest sons ; one of whom she 
has every reason to be proud, for he was the military 
rival of Frederick of Prussia, and of France's most skil- 
ful marshals, and he filled all Europe with the fame of his 
exploits in the field and his talent in the cabinet. 

A magnificent monument was erected to his memory, 
and his titles and estates were inherited by his sons, of 
whom he left two by his countess, Maria Philippina of 
Martinitz. One of these died at Vienna, on the 1st May, 
1759, a major-general in the service of Austria : he ex- 
pired in great torture, under wounds leceived in battle. 



142 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 



Pifinob of % f atp. 

Ireland has given to the armies of Europe five brave 
soldiers, all kinsmen of the name of Lacy — viz., Marshal 
Lacy, who overran the Crimea in the service of Russia, 
and was the fellow-soldier of the great Count Munich ; 
Marshal Count Lacy, his son, the friend of Leopold Daun, 
and, like him, a distinguished general in the Septennial 
War ; Francis Anthony Count de Lacy, who died Captain- 
Oeneral of Catalonia ; his brother Patrick Lacy, Major 
of the Ulster Regiment in the Spanish sei-vice ; and his 
son, Louis Lacy, who fought with such bravery in the 
wars of the Peninsula, and was Ghef-du-Battailon of the 
Irish in 1807. 

All those Lacys were of the old Irish family of Bruree, 
iind their native place orii^inally was Athlacca, a parish in 
the county of Limerick, on the Maig. Many of this 
gallant race are buried there, in the ancient churchyard, 
where an old tomb is yet extant, inscribed — 

"John, Thomas, and Edward Lacy, 1632." 

The family followed to foreign wars the fortunes of the 
exiled James Fitz-James, Duke of Berwick, Commander 
of the first troop of Irish Horse Guards, and natural son 
of James 11. of England and VI L of Scotland. He was 
married first to a daughter of the Earl of Clanricarde, 
by whom he had a son, the successor of his titles and 
estates in Spain, and who also became the friend of the 
Lacys. 

The first of the family who rose to eminence was 
Marshal Peter Lacy, who entered the service of Russia, 
and commanded with such distinction and success against 
the Turks. 

He sei*ved as a subaltern and regimental officer in ihe 



THE LACYS. 143 

armies of Peter the Great, and first learned tlie art of 
war ill those saiigiiiiiary and desperate coniiicts between 
the forces of the Czar and those of Charles XII. of 
Sweden, against whom Peter made an alliance with the 
Kings of Poland and Denmark in 1699, and witli whom 
his general, the brave Prince Menschikoff, fought so 
many battles in the early part of the last century. 

In the year 173G Lacy had attained the rank of 
general in the llussian army, under Anne Ivanowna 
(niece of Peter I.), who at that time governed the vast 
and barbarous empire of the Muscovites. Count Munich, 
who, for her service, had left the army of the Elector of 
Saxony, was at the head of her troops. " He was the 
Prince Eugene of Muscovy," says Frederick the Great ; 
"but he had the vices with the virtues of all great 
generals. Lascy (the younger), Keith, Lowendhal, and 
other able generals, were formed in his school." Sir 
Patrick Gordon, a Scottish soldier of fortune, had already 
disciplined the llussian army, and brought it from bar- 
barism to an equality with others in Europe ; and in the 
time of Lacy and Munich it consisted of 10,000 guards, 
60,000 infantry of the line, 20,000 dragoons, 2000 cuiras- 
siers, 30,000 militia, with Cossacks, Tartars, Calmucs, 
and other barbarians, in unnumbered hordes. 

In the year 1736 the dijfferences between the Czarina 
Anne and her hereditary enemy the Grand Seignior, 
came to a crisis ; and she declared war, in consequence of 
the provoking outrages of the Tartars of the Crimea, and 
the neglect of the Sultan to her repeated remonstrances 
on that subject ; and the Emperor of Austria concerted 
with her the plan of the new campaign against Turkey. 
It was agreed that a Kussian army, under General Lacy 
(or Lasci, as it is often spelt), should march against the 
city of Azoph ; that another Russian army, commanded 
by the Count de Munich, should penetrate to the Ukraine ; 
while the Austrians, under Count Seckendorf, should pre- 
pare to assault Widin, in Servia ; and all these armies 
marched accordingly. 

The Khan of the Crimea was, in those days, a powerful 
prince, who paid tribute to the Sultan, though he waa 



I 



144 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

styled Emperor by his Tartar subjects, and, being descended 
of the Ottoman blood, had a claim to the Turkish throne, 
on the extinction of the race of Achmet III. The sultam 
held the power of deposing them, and, being jealous of 
their rank and authority, allowed few of them to die at 
liberty. Thus most of the Khans of the Crimea have 
ended their lives in chains in the dungeons of Rliodez, 
Among his own people the khan could then, at any 
time, command an army of eighty or a hundred thou- 
sand men j but darts, arrows, and spears, with a few 
muskets, were their weapons, with wooden saddles and 
stirrups. His revenues were, the tenth of all captives, 
a black mail paid by the Poles and Muscovites, and 
twenty cart-loads of honey from the Moldavians. He 
had vast flocks, coined copper money, and maintained a 
guard of Janissaries, who bore his green and purple 
standard. The Crimea then contained several great 
cities, and, besides many noble monuments of the 
Genoese, was covered by the ruins of the Grecian age 
and power. 

Lacy came in sight of Azoph in March, 1736. It stands 
on the left bank of the most southern branch of the Don, 
in a district full of dangerous swamps, and on an eminence, 
the only spot capable of bearing buildings in that bleak 
and barren district. The city was then of a square form, 
situated at the foot of an acclivity, and having a castle of 
great strength. Lacy attacked both town and castle with 
great vigour ; and though assailed by incessant showers 
of bullets, arrows, darts, stones, and other missiles, shot 
by its strong garrison of Tartars and Turks, he took it by 
storm, after a twelve days' siege, and completely re- 
duced it. 

Field-Marshal Count Munich, with 100,000 men, was 
equally successful elsewhere. 

Lacy next forced the far-famed lines of Perekop, which, 
till then, had been considered impregnable. They ex- 
tended across the Isthmus, from the Euxine to the Palus 
M^eotis, and had been the labour of 5000 men for many 
years. The great ditch (from whence we have the name 
of Ferecopz) was seventy -two feet broad by forty-two feet 



THE LACYS. 14ft 

deep, and the rampart was seventy feet in height, from 
its base to the cope of the parapet. The town was 
defended by a castle, the residence of the Aga of the 
Guards upon the Don and Dnieper, and by six great 
towers mounted with cannon ; but the whole of these 
ample fortifications were manned by an army which made 
the laost pitiful resistance ; for this Irish soldier of 
fortune forced them, sword in hand, at the head of his 
troops, cut to pieces all who resisted, and hewed a passage 
into the peninsula. 

He took Bakhtchissari, which lies within twenty- two 
miles of Sebastopol. It then contained about 4000 
houses, a mosque with a fine palace, and many stately 
tombs where the khans were buried. Around it were 
baths, gardens, and orchards ; and near it, in the narrow 
valley, there still stands the now deserted mausoleum of 
a famous Georgian beauty, who was the chief wife of the 
Khan Khareem Gheraee. 

While Munich was marching towards Bessarabia, Lacy 
overran the whole Crimea, and ravaged the country with 
fire and sword, up to the northern slopes of the Tauric 
mountains ; but being foiled before KafFa (on the sea 
shore), which was defended by strong walls, two castles, 
and a garrison under a bashaw, he was compelled, by the 
approach of winter, to retreat, after subjugating the 
whole country, and defeating more than 20,000 Tartars 
in one pitched battle. 

" General Lacy," says Smollett," routed the Tartars of 
the Crimea ; but they returned in greater numbers, and 
harassed his Muscovites in such a manner, by intercepting 
their provisions and destroying the country, that he was 
obliged to abandon the lines of Perekop." The great 
Field-Marshal, Baron Loudon (descended from an Ayr- 
shire family), served in this war, under Lacy, as a sub- 
altern officer. Among the Scottish volunteers who also 
served there, were Colonel Johnstone ; the gallant General 
Leslie, who, with all his soldiers, was destroyed on the 
Steppe by the Tartars ; and General Balmaine, who 
Bif>rmed KafFa. 

After these triumphant operations, Lacy entered the 



146 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

Ukraine, joined Marshal Munich, and together, in 1737, 
they laid siege to Oczakow, at the mouth of the Bory- 
Bthenes. 

Oczakow, or Dziar Crmienda, had then about 5000 
houses, a mosque, a palace, with a number of tombs of the 
Crimean khans, which stood among their gardens and 
orchards. It had a castle, built by Vitolaus, Duke of 
Lithuania, and therein a Turkish garrison had been esta- 
blished since 1644. Munich and Lacy assailed the town 
and castle on the landward side ; but towards the seii 
they were attacked by the cannon of eighteen galleys. 
The Muscovites carried all their approaches with such 
impetuosity and perseverance, that, in a few days, the 
Turks and Tartars became filled with terror. 

Among those who distinguislied themselves particularly 
in this service were, General the Honourable James Keith 
(brother of the exiled Earl Marischal of Scotland), who 
was dangerously wounded in the thigh, and another 
Jacobite exile, Colonel Count Brown, a brave Irishman — 
" A Catholic," says Tooke, " who was compelled to seek 
his fortune in foreign countries, by the exertion of those 
talents which he would willingly have dedicated to the 
service of his own."" 

The garrison, which consisted of 3000 Janissaries and 
7000 Bosniacs, stoutly defended themselves; but Oczakow 
was carried by assault. A bomb set lire to the town, and 
blew up its magazine ; Lacy and Munich seized this op- 
portunity to lead on their stormers, and, pressed by the 
foe before them and the flames behind, the Mussulmans 
were nearly all cut to pieces ; but not before they had 
slain 11,000 regular troops and 5000 Cossacks by bayonet 
and scimitar. 

The rapid success of these two generals against the 
Crim Tartars awakened the restless ambition of Austria ; 
^nd the Emperor believing that, if he a-ssailed the Porte 
by the Hungarian frontier while the Czarina pressed her 
victorious arms along the shores of the Black Sea, the 
Empire of tlie Osmanlies would be finally subverted, 
declared war, and to co-operate with his troops, the Count 



THE LACYS. 147 

Brown* left Lacy and Munich, and marched into Hungary 
at the head of a Kussian column. But the hopes of the 
Emperor were frustrated ! The Turks turned all their 
vengeance against him, defeated his generals, and besieged 
Belgrade. The Austrian Field-Marshal Wallace was 
defeated at Crotska, and the gallant Earl of Ci^aMford 
who served under him as a volunteer, received a wound 
from which he never recovered. The troops of Brown 
were also routed, and he was taken prisoner. The bar- 
barous Osmanlies stripped him quite naked, and bound 
him back to back with another prisoner for forty-eight 
hours. He was four times exposed for sale as a slave in 
the common market-place, and four times was bought by 
different masters, who treated him with the greatest 
cruelty. 

He gave out that he was a captain to lessen the price 
of his ransom, and in this deplorable condition was dis- 
covered by an Irish gentleman, who communicated his 
story to M. de Villeneuve, the French ambassador at 
Constantinople, by whom he was generously ransomed for 
three hundred ducats, and sent back to Russia, where h© 
died a general and governor of Biga, in 1789, in hia 
eighty-eighth year. 

The reverses on the side of Hungary overbalanced the 
success of Lacy against the Crim Tartars ; the Emperor 
lost heart, and the Czarina, though victorious again at 
Choczim in Bessarabia, where, on the 31st August, 1739, 
the forces of Munich defeated the Turks and swept the 
right bank of the Dneister, fearing that she was about to 
lose her ally, concluded a treaty of peace, by which. 
Austria ceded to the Porte, Belgrade, Sabatz, the island 
and fortress of Orsova, with Servia and Wallachia, while 
the Danube and the Saave were to be the boundaries of 
their empires ; but the Czarina retained Azoph, the im- 
portant conquest of Marshal Lacy, who, in obedience to 
her orders, demolished the walls and fortifications of the 

* This is not the same Irish officer of whom a memoir is given 
elsewhere. 

l2 



8 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

city. To commemorate the exploits of him and Munich, 
she ordered a medal to be struck, having direct reference 
to the war in the Crimea, which was thenceforward to be 
an independent state. On one side of this medal was the 
legend — 

"ANNiE IVANOWNA, D.G., RUSSLE IMPECUTBIX," 

On the other was an eagle, with the words — 

"pace EUROPE PROMOTA, TARTARIS, VICTIS, TANAI 
LIBERATO, ANNO 1736." 

Marshal Lacy ended his days in honour, and a noble 
monument was erected to his memory ; but his less for- 
tunate compatriot, Marshal Munich, incuiTed the displea- 
sure of their capricious mistress, and was banished for 
twenty years to the most northern confines of Siberia. 
Kecalled in his old age by the Czar Peter III., he was 
made Governor of Esthonia and Livonia ; but died at 
Biga almost immediately after receiving that appoint- 
ment, in his eighty-fifth year. 

Joseph Francis Maurice Count Lacy, one of the 
great captains of the Seven Years' War, was the son of the 
preceding. 

He was born at St. Petersburg, in the year 1718, and 
learned the art of soldiering imder the eye of his father, 
and in the camp of Marshal Munich, in the service of the 
Czarina Anne, during her Crimean and Bessarabian cam- 
paigns 

At the age of twenty he was a captain, and to his 
knowledge and love of the art of war united a polished 
education, gained under the best masters in Germany. 

In 1740, on the accession of Maria Theresa to the Aus- 
trian throne, he entered her service, with the permission 
of the Czarina, and there, by his talents, courage, and 
gentle bearing won the esteem of his soldiers ; thus he 
Koon attained a majority, and then the rank of colonel 
He served in the Italian cam])aign as aide-de-camp to ' 
Count Brown, and at Viletri, had throe horses shot under 
nim. He distinguished himself still more at the siege of 
Maestricht, and obtained command of a regiment. 



THE LACYS. 1 if) 

In the war of the Hungarian Succession, after the co- 
wardice and extraordinary mismanagement of the Duke 
of Cumberland had covered the British army with dis- 
grace in the Low Countries, by allowing it to be out- 
flanked at Khloster Seven, by failing to defend the 
position at Maestricht, and forcing it shamefully to ca- 
pitulate, on the 8th of September, 1757, and thus 
abandon our ally, Frederick the Great of Prussia, that 
warlike monarch only pushed on the war witli greater 
vigour. In this disastrous contest the activity and 
Hgilance of Count Lacy soon recommended him to the 
notice of Leopold Count Daun, a native of Bohemia, and 
son of Philip Lorenzo, Prince of Tiano, the pupil oi 
Kevenhuller ; and he improved the good opinion of that 
great soldier by his fascinating manner and courticr-like 
behaviour. The friendship of Daun soon won him the 
rank of major-general ; and as such he commanded a 
brigade in his division, when, in 1757, conformable to the 
defensive system taken by Russia, Austria, and Sweden, 
the army of the Empress-Queen was broken into four 
great columns, to prosecute the war against the Prussians, 
French, and Bavarians, the violators of the famous Prag- 
matic Sanction. 

One column, under the Duke d'Aremberg, was jjosted 
at Egra ; a second, under Marshal Count Brown, was 
posted at Budyn ; a third, under Count Konigsegg, held 
Reichenburg j a fourth, under Marshal Daun, occupied 
Moravia. 

In his column were the brigades of Lacy and Lowen- 
stein, whom Frederick of Prussia styles " two young 
officers who ardently sought to distinguish themselves." 
Lacy was then in his thirty-eighth year. 

In Lusatia, during the winter of 1756 and the spring 
of 1757, these officers had given infinite trouble to the 
troops of Frederick. They had frequently attacked, 
sword in hand, his post at Ostritz, a Saxon town on the 
Queiss ; at other times, his intrenchments at Hirschfelde, 
a manufacturing town on the left bank of the Keisse, and 
also at Marienthiel. Hirschfelde, which was garrisoned 
by one battalion of Prussians, they assailed at four 



150 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

o'clock one morning, with 6000 men ; two redoubts, 
which stood without the gates, each defended by two 
pieces of cannon, were repeatedly taken and retaken ; 
but after losing 500 men, Lacy and his brother-brigadier 
retii'cd, bringing off the Prussian guns as a trophy. 
These assaults were ineffectual, and many men were 
slain. Among others fell Major Blumenthal, of the 
Prince Henry's regiment — a brave officer. The Prus- 
sian corps of Lestwitz at Zittace, and of the Prince 
of Bavern at Gorlitz were harassed by perpetual alarms ; 
and such was the activity of young Lacy and Lowen- 
stein, that they kept them continually under arms, if not 
in action, during the winter months. 

As a brigadier, Lacy bore a distinguislied part in the 
battles of Reichenberg and of Prague, and in all the 
operations consequent to the invasion of Bohemia by 
Frederick the Great, whose policy it was ever to keep the 
scene of his wars as far as possible from his own territory ; 
thus his army entered the Bohemian frontier in four 
columns, from Saxony, Misnia, Lusatia, and Silesia, 
Tinder himself and Marshal Keith ; Prince Maurice, 
of Anhalt Dessau; Prince Ferdinand, of Brunswick- 
Bavem ; and the aged Marshal Schwerin. The division 
of the latter entered in five brigades, at five different 
places, and won the dangerous defile of Gulder Oelse 
from the Pandours, at the point of the bayonet. 

Everywhere the Austrians were driven back before 
this sudden torrent of Prussian soldiers, who advanced 
against the position of Count Konigsegg at Beichenberg, 
where 28,000 men were formed in order of battle, under 
cover of strong redoubts, and among steep mountains 
covered with dense forests. But the lines were stormed 
and the Austrians defeated, with the loss of 1000 killed, 
among whom were two counts, a prince, and a general, 
while twenty officers, four hundred soldiers, and three 
standards were taken as an augury of greater victories. 
On hearing of this defeat, Leopold Daun marched with all 
speed from Moravia to reinforce the main body of the 
Austrians, which, when joined by the regiments of 
Prague and Bavern, mustered 100,000 men. Making a 



THE LACYS. 15" 

feink towards Egra (which drew off 20,000 Austrian s in 
that direction), the King of Prussia and Marshal Keith 
marched against the other troops of the Empress-Queen ; 
and, crossing the Moldau on the 5th May, turned i\\o 
jBank of the Imperialists, under the famous Ulysses 
Count Brown, whose steady defence made the Prussians 
waver and fall back. On this the venerable Marshal 
Schwerin, then in his eighty-second year, stung by the 
unmerited reproaches of the king, who urged him to 
advance, dismounted in the marshy ground, and taking 
an infantry standard in his hand, cried, " Let all brave 
Prussians follow me /" 

But at that moment an Austrian bullet pierced his 
breast ; and falling thus, covered with years and glory, he 
closed a long career of faithful military service ; but the 
Prussian foot pressed furiously on, and after three cliarges 
totally routed the Austrians, whose general, Count Brown, 
also received his mortal wound, as already related. 

Finding the day irreparably lost, Count Lacy, Prince 
Charles of Lorraine, the Princes of Saxony and Modena, 
and the Duke d'Aremberg, with the remnant of their in- 
fantry, in all 50,000 men, took refuge in Prague, where 
the gallant Brown expired of his wound, on the 6th May. 
Meanwhile 16,000 cavalry fled to Marshal Daun, who had 
encamped at Bohmishbrodt the night before the battle. 

The Prussians followed up their victory with ardour ; 
Prague, with 100,000 souls within its walls, was invested 
closely ; Frederick pushed the blockade on one side, and 
Marshal Keith on the other. In four days they had 
it completely surrounded, and cut off every means of 
supply, agreeably to the last words of Marshal Brown, 
who, when dying, said : " Tell Prince Charles of Lor- 
raine instantly to march out and attack Marshal Keith, 
or all is lost." 

Lacy and others proposed to assail the Prussians in th^ 
night, with 12,000 Austrians, who were to be sustained 
by all the Pandours and Hungarian Grenadiers ; and thus 
to hew a passage, sword in hand, through Frederick's lines, 
and relieve Prague of the multitude of soldiers who were 
rapidly consuming the provisions of the people. An in- 



152 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

famous desert(^r informed the Prussians of this gallant 
design, and thns they were all on tlie alert, when about 
two o'clock, in the darkness of a misty morning, a fiery 
tide of armed men rolled out of Prague, and assailing 
Marshal Keith at the bayonet's point, pressed desperately 
on towards the Moldau ; but, after a fierce and desul- 
tory conflict, in which Prince Henry (Frederick's youngest 
son) liad a horse shot under him, the Austrians were 
routed, and Lacy and other brave leaders were forced to 
fall back into Prague, with the loss of many killed and 
wounded. 

After this the Prussian batteries opened, and in twenty- 
four hours threw 300 bombs, besides many fire-balls into 
the town ; its streets were soon sheeted with fire, and 
men, women, and horses, with the sick and wounded, 
perished in vast numbers. The city burned for three 
days j flames and starvation drove the citizens to despair. 
Seeing their loved Bohemian capital on the verge of 
destruction, they besought Lacy, d'Aremberg, and other 
commanders, in the most moving terms, to surrender ; 
but war had hardened their hearts, and instead of com- 
plying, they drove out 12,000 persons who were considered 
as a mere incumberance. These unfortunates were hurled 
back by the Prussians to the walls of Prague, and thus 
the Austrians were soon reduced to eat their troop and 
artillery horses, forty of which were shot daily, and cut 
up for rations, or sold at four pence per pound to the 
wretched people, who still perished hourly by fire, shot, and 
famine. 

Two other sallies were made, and the Prussian camp 
was kept in a state of perpetual alarm. In this defence, 
so disastrous to the city. Lacy Wtxs of incalculable service 
in harassing the Prussian trenches, by his vigilance and 
restless bravery. Contrary to the advice of Keith, the 
king, on the 13th of June, left a small force before 
Prague, and, drawing off" his main body, marched against 
Dauii, who defeated him in battle at Kolin, and forced 
him to leave Bohemia — a movement by which the blockade 
of Prague was abandoned ; and the imprisoned Austrians 
received their deliverer with inexpressible joy. Lacy and 



THE LACYS. 153^ 

other generals issued out, with their breasts full of ardou? 
and vengeance, and followed the retreating Prussians over 
the Saxon frontier, sabring all stragglers who fell into 
their power. 

To narrate all the military operations in which Count 
Lacy bore a part, would be to rehearse the history of the 
Seven Years' War. He owed his elevation and high 
consideration as much to his own bravery and skill as to 
the patronage and friendship of Daun, who consulted him. 
on every occasion, and employed him in the execution of 
the most delicate measures. 

Though by his vigour and decision he frequently urged 
Marshal Daun on many a bold enterprise, he was possessed 
of great coolness and presence of mind. " His ardour,** 
says the historian of the House of Hapsburg, " never ex- 
ceeded the bounds of prudence, or hurried him into 
attempts which might incur the censure of his patron." 
He was of great service in drilling and training the 
Austrian forces to perform those new and difficult 
manoeuvres of which Daun was the inventor; he was a 
strict disciplinarian, a friend to order, and by his precept 
and example succeeded in introducing a degree of eco- 
nomy into every branch of the Austrian military servica 

In 1758 the King of Prussia commenced the new cam- 
paign, and entering Moravia, invested Olmutz. General 
Lacy was then of great service in protecting the roads 
which led to Upper Silesia ; and, when posted at Gibau 
with a large body of Austrians, he sent a detachment of 
grenadiers to Krenau, where they harassed the Prussian 
rear-guard, till they were driven back by Wied. When 
Frederick retired from Konigsgratz, Lacy and St. Ignan 
followed him with 15,000 men, and had many sever© 
encounters with the Putkammer hussars, who formed the 
rear-guard of the Prussians. 

He served valiantly at the great battle of Hochkirchen, 
when the good old Marshal Keith, Knight of the Black 
Eagle, and Governor of Berlin, a general second to none 
in the Seven Years War, was slain that day, when 
fighting on foot at the head of the Prussian infantry; and 
here ensued an affecting incident. Afier the battle, hh 



154 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

body was shamefully abandoned by the routed Prussians, 
and stripped by Austrian stragglers. Thus it lay long on 
the field, undistinguished from the thousands of others 
which covered it. In this degrading situation it waa 
found by "Lacy, who was riding over the ground, and with 
whose father (old Marshal Lacy) the venerable Keith had 
served in Russia, and by whose side he had been wounded 
in the Crimea. The count recognised the body, says Dr. 
Smollett, by the large scar of a dangerous wound which 
General Keith had received in his thigh at the siege of 
Oczakow, and could not refrain from tears on seeing his 
father's honoured friend lying thus at his feet, a naked, life- 
less, and deserted corpse ; and it must have been an inter- 
esting scene to witness these two exiles — the young Irish 
Jacobite weeping over the old Scottish Cavalier — on that 
sanguinary field. Lacy had the body immediately covered, 
^nd interred with the honours of war, in the adjacent 
chui'chyard, from whence it was afterwards removed to 
Berlin. 

Lacy, with Daun and Loudon, bore a conspicuous part 
in the campaign of 1760, particularly in those manoeuvres 
by which the King of Prussia, notwithstanding all his 
skill and cunning, was frustrated in his Silesian ope* 
rations. 

Proposing to invade the Duchy again, he crossed the 
Elbe, on the 15th June, and was joined by the Prince of 
Holstein. On this. Lacy, who had been watching them, 
<lrew in his outposts, and retired to Zehaila. On his 
march Frederick passed very close to Lacy's camp, with 
his infantry covered by only four regiments of Saxon 
horse. These drove in Lacy's pickets; on which he 
shifted his ground to a position at the foot of the hills of 
Bockerdorf and Beichenberg. Frederick made prepara- 
tions to assail them on the morrow, and only waited for 
reinforcements under General Hulsen ; but Daun, who 
had crossed the Elbe at Dresden, and was hastening to 
the assistance of his friend, dispatched an oflficer to him, 
•with orders " to shift his ground ;" and together they 
took up a new position at Lausa, while Frederick occupied 
the place which Lacy had left by three regiments of 



THE LACYS. 155 

hussars, two of dragoons, and two free corps, which, were 
attacked, but unsuccessfully, by Lacy in the night. 

Both armies, Prussian and Imperialist, began their 
march for Silefeia on the same day, each eager to antici- 
pate and shut t}ie other out. The former marched by tli4 
way of Crackau ; the latter marched through Bischofs- 
werder ; and en route Daun detached Lacy to Keulenburg, 
to cover his left flank ; but Frederick attacked the young 
brigadier unexpectedly, and captured 200 of his rear- 
guard. The heat was so excessive at this time that 
eighty men dropped dead on the march. Lacy continued 
to harass the Prussian rear, till at Salzforstien Frederick 
turned and attacked his Uhlans with four regiments of 
horse, who in the fii'st charge shot and sabred 400 men. 
At that time Lacy's whole cavalry were encamped at 
Rothen Nauslitz ; but he brought them up by successive 
troops — for here again he was taken by surprise — and a 
desultory and destructive skirmish ensued, after which 
both parties separated. Frederick now decided it was 
necessaiy eitlier to follow Daun, who had already reached 
Silesia, or to rid himself at once of the resolute Lacy, who 
hung like a wolf upon his skirts, and encumbered every 
movement. Thus, on the evening of the 8th of July, 
after making a feigned movement tow^ards Gorlitz, he 
suddenly broke into Lacy's camp, and drove him beyond 
the defiles of Horta, where his Prussians passed the night, 
while the Austrians occupied the mountain of the White 
Stag. From this Lacy's small force was driven next day 
and had to rccross the Elbe at Dresden, from whence he 
marched to a position at Gros Seidlitz, while lines of cir- 
cumvallation were drawn round the city. A letter 
written by Daun to Lacy, containing all his plans of the 
campaign, was intercepted here, and brought to Frederick, 
to whom it proved of great service. 

On the 10th of August, Lacy lost his tents and bag- 
gage when escaping an attack meditated by Frederick^ 
who was baffled by the timely arrival of. Daun at Ilen- 
nersdorf. Marshal Loudon invested Breslau, but raised 
the siege on Prince Henry of Prussia marching to its 
t&Jef. Frederick then made his memorable march to 



156 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

prevent the Kussians from forming a junction with Daun 
and Lacy; he passed five rivers, the Elbe, the Spree, the 
Neiss, the Quiess, and the Bober, though trammelled by 
2000 caissons and a ponderous train of artillery; but he 
was unable to bring Loudon to action before that general 
was joined by Lacy and Daun. The three leaders then 
encompassed his camp at Lignitz, and his afiairs seemed 
desperate ; for Daun, after a reconnoisance, announced to 
Lacy and Loudon his resolution of storming the Prussian 
position by a night attack; but the subtle Frederick 
eluded them all, by suddenly and secretly passing the 
Elbe, and hastening into Saxony, whither Daun and Lacy 
followed him, at the head of 80,000 men. Then Cunners- 
dorf, the bloodiest battle of the Seven Years' War, was 
fought and lost by Frederick. In that field he had 
20,000 of his soldiers slain, and all his generals killed or 
wounded. He made incredible exertions to retrieve the 
day, and his uniform was riddled by musket-balls. 

The Russians passed the Oder, and pushed a strong 
column into Brandenburg, under Count Czernichew, who 
was joined by a large body of Austrians under Lacy, and 
together they made themselves masters of Berlin, the 
capital, about the end of October. They levied a severe 
contribution upon the citizens, destroyed all the maga- 
zines, arsenals, and foundries, pillaged the royal palaces, 
and ravaged all the adjacent country, burning a vast 
amount of property and military stores ; but they retired 
by different routes on hearing that the mortified Frede- 
rick was advancing to the relief of his plundered capital. 
And soon after he had his revenge at the battle fought 
near Toorgau, on the 23rd of November. There Lacy 
commanded the reserve of 20,000 men, who covered the 
causeway and several ponds which lay at the extremity 
of Daun's position, and on which his left flank rested; 
Lacy endured a severe cannonade at the beginning of the 
action. General Count O'Donnel commanded the cavalr}^ 
When Daun gave way, Lacy brought up his reserve, and 
twice with the bayonet he strove desjjerately and heroi- 
cally to regain the day, but was twice driven back by the 
Prussians ; nor did he abandon that disastrous field until 



THE LACYS. 157 

half-past nine in the dark November evening. By that 
time Daim, after receiving a shot in the thigh, had been 
borne away wounded, and O'Donnel had assumed tha 
command of the broken and discomfited army. 

" Although I have been in twenty-eight battles," says 
a Swiss officer, whose letter appears in a Scottish news- 
paper of the time," " I never saw anytliing more dreadful 
than the field presented. It was near six o'clock, a most 
obscure night — to use the words of Harlequin, a night of 
ink — the only light we had was the infernal fire of the 
artillery and musketry, the horrid noise of the combatants 
rendered more dreadful by the night ; the melancholy 
cries of the wounded, mixed with the sound of drums and 
trumpets, filled the soul with horror. Kill/ Kill! was 
cried out everywhere. In a word, I never saw anything 
that better corresponded with the melancholy idea given 
us of hell itself!" 

The Austrians, despite their 200 pieces of cannon, were 
routed and driven over the Elbe ; 10,000 of them lay 
slain on the field, and four generals, 200 other officers, 
and 8000 men were taken, with twenty-seven stand of 
colours, and fifty guns, for of all Frederick's victories this 
was the most successful and glorious. He recovered all 
Saxony except Dresden, in the neighbourhood of which an 
Austrian division, under General MacGuire, another Irish 
soldier of fortune, was hovering. The troops of the 
Empress-Queen evacuated Silesia, while the Russians 
abandoned Colberg and retired into Poland ; and thus 
closed the year 17 GO. 

Leaving Lacy to watch the Prussian general Zeithen, 
Leopold Daun, accompanied by his countess, repaired to 
Vienna, and so soon recovered, that in the spring of the 
following year he was able to assist at the councils of war. 
Fifty thousand men were now prisoners on both sides. 
In February, 1761, Lacy, now a field-marshal, meant to 
have visited Finland (where his father had received ex- 
tensive estates), to settle certain family disputes which had 
arisen ; but the preparations for another campaign, and 

• Edinburgh Courant* rth January, 1761. 



15S THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

the knowledge that his old friend Dauu was about to 
resume the command, made him defer this journey for a 
time. 

On the 21st of March, Marshal Dauii departed from 
Vienna to join the army, and all the generals repaired to 
the head of their different brigades and divisions, for it 
was intended that tlie greatest efforts should now be made 
to crush the warlike King of Prussia. Daun took the 
command in Saxony ; Marshal Count Loudon in Silesia, 
where he was to be supported by the Russians under 
Marshal Butterlin, whose train of artillery was tre- 
mendous. It consisted of no less than eight ninety-six- 
^ounders, twenty-two forty-eight-pounders, seventy tweuty- 
four-pounders, eighty-three twelve-pounders, eighty-six 
eight-pounders, and 106 lighter field pieces, drawn by 
13,834 horses. 

O'Donnel marched with 16,000 men to Zittau, from 
whence he was to assist the armies of Saxony or Silesia, 
as occasion might require, and he pushed one division as 
far as Dresden. 

In June, Lacy's corps took post on the right bank of 
the Elbe, to preserve a communication with the division 
of his countiyman. Several other Irishmen had high 
rank in the Austrian service about this time, and we 
may particularly note Nicholas Count Taaffe, who died a 
colonel-commandant in 1770, aged ninety- two, and was 
Bucceeded in his title and regiment by his son. Count 
Francis ; and Count O'Rourke,* Knight of St. Louis, 
descended from an ancient family in the county of Leitrim, 
whose ancestors Cromwell is said to have stripped of an 
estate worth 70,000^. per annum. 

On the Prussians, under Prince Henry, passing the 
Elbe in July, Daun reinforced Lacy with six battalions 
and some regiments of horse. In S})ite of their utmost 
efforts, Frederick, after fighting the Imperialists on the 
heights of Buckersdorf, where an Irish ofiicer named 
O'Kelly ably defended their redoubts witli only 4000 
men, recovered the city of Schweidnitz on the 22nd July, 

* Count-O'Eourke died at Lincoln's Inn, London, in 1785. 



THE LACYS. 15^ 

though defended by 9000 men, under another Irish general 
named Butler. He then turned his eyes towards Saxony, 
and proposed to besiege Dresden. 

After Loudon entered Silesia in August, some severe 
fighting ensued, especially at Munsterberg, and on the 
hills of Labedau. Lacy was then hovering with his 
troops near Grossenhayn, and encamping at Gros-dobritz, 
fiom whence he advanced his videttes as far as Strehleu 
along the Elbe — for Count O'Donnel still occupied Dresden, 
or its neighbourhood. 

In September, Lacy was sent with his brigade, 15,000- 
strong, by Daun, to join the Russians at Brandenburg, 
with orders to ravage all the electorate, which, while 
covered by the army of SoltikoiF, he did so effectually as 
to compel Frederick either to shift his camp from Bunt- 
zelwitz, on which he had 4:66 guns with 182 mines, or to 
weaken his army by sending out detachments to protect 
the burning country. In doing the latter some of Prince 
Henry's cavalry were severely cut up by Lacy's dragoons 
in a forest near Reisa ; and to avoid such unpleasant 
surprises in future, the Prussians cut down all the mag- 
nificent timber that surrounded the old castle of Huberts- 
bourg ; but on I^acy's nearer approach they retired to 
Potsdam and Spaudau. In October, Prince Henry of 
Prussia and Marshal Daun were both encamped — one 
under the walls of Dresden, and the other under the 
ramparts of Meissen, while their hussars and light troops 
fought together hourly, and Lacy hovered in the neigh- 
bourhood of Lusace, watching some large detachments of 
Prussians. 

In December he again terrified the inhabitants of the 
capital by appearing suddenly within seven miles of 
Berlin ; but on an overwhelming force under General 
Bandemer being sent against him by Prince Henry, he 
recrossed the Elbe and retreated. 

Fortunately in 1762 there was concluded with the 
Court of Vienna a cessation of hostilities for the provinces 
of Saxony and Silesia. This partial truce induced the 
Princes of the Emj)ire to sign a treaty of neutrality to 
save their petty dominions fi'om the ravages of Frederick ;. 



160 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

and as Sweden and Russia, on the accession of the Czar 
Peter III , had concluded a truce with him, the Sep- 
tennial War was thus left to be finished by the two powers 
which l)egan it — Prussia and Austria. 

In that year the Khan of the Crimea proposed to join the 
former, and indeed marched 5000 men towards the fi-ontier 
of Poland for that purpose ; but the death of the Czarina 
Elizabeth, and the consequent revolution in Russia, had 
so bewildered the poor Tartar, that not knowing what 
side to take, he timidly retreated to Perekop. On this 
Frederick recalled the Prince of Bavern from Moravia, 
with his troops, that together they might make doubly 
sure of Schweidnitz. 

They joined forces, and the prince encamped on tho 
heights of Peilau. Scarcely had this junction been 
effected before the Austrians, imder Daun, Lacy, and 
O'Donnel, entered among the mountains on the 16th of 
August, 1762, and after a skirmish at Langan Bielau, 
encamped with forty battalions and forty squadrons clofie 
by; while General Beck, another Imperialist, occupied 
the Kletchberg with twelve battalions and twenty 
squadrons. All night the Prussians were under arms ; 
their cavalry bitted and saddled, their muskets loaded, 
and port-fires lit ; every trooper slept beside his horse, 
and each gunner by his cannon. Daun assailed the Prince 
of Bavern in his position with great impetuosity. Lacy 
passed the village of Peilau with six battalions, which he 
skilfully kept concealed behind a hill whereon his artillery 
were posted. To cover his left flank, O'Donnel marched 
forty squadrons directly from Peilau, and three times his 
Imperial cuirassiers were repulsed from the valley, and by 
a volley of grape from fifteen six-pounders his confusion 
was completed. O'Donnel, with the loss of 1500 dragoons, 
fell back, and thus exposed the left flank of Lacy, who, 
after making great efforts to storm the heights occupied 
by the foe, was compelled to retreat ; and next day 
Daun retired by Wartha and Clatz to Scharfneck, where 
lie remained till the close of the campaign. 

This was the last military service of importance per- 
formed by Marshal Count Lacy at that time ; for boou 



THE LACYS. 165 

after, the war came to a close, by the treaty of ])eace> 
signed in February, 1763, by which it was agreed that a 
mutual restitution of conquests and oblivion of injuries 
Bliould take place ; and that Prussia and Austria should 
be put in the same position as when the hostilities began ; 
and thus happily ended this truly atrocious strife, in which 
nearly nine hundred thousand soldiers perished. 
Prussia fought ten pitched battles, and lost 180,000 men ; 
Russia, four great battles, and lost 120,000 men ; Austria, 
ten battles, with the loss of 140,000 men ; France lost 
200,000; Britain, 165,000; Sweden, 25,000; and the 
Circles 28,000 ; while Austria found herself encumbered 
by one hundred millions of crowns of debt ! 

For fourteen years Lacy led a life of peace, devoting 
himself to the development of discipline in the Austrian 
army, till the death of the Bavarian Elector, on the 30th 
December, 1777, opened up a new prospect of aggrandize- 
ment to the Imperial Government, and again lighted the 
torch of war in Germany. The Elector Palatine, the 
Elector of Saxony and Duke of Mechlenburg-Schwerin 
laid claim to the vacant Electoral hat ; but their voices 
were lost when the formidable and covetous House of 
Hapsburg also put forth a demand, and the Emperor 
Joseph and Marshal Lacy appeared with 100,000 men, 
and an immense train of artillery, at the celebrated posi- 
tion of Konigsgratz, above the confluence of the Adler 
and the Rhine. 

The Prussians and Saxons broke into Bohemia, and 
compelled Loudon to retreat^ and a year of the old 
manceuvring war and devastation followed, till the Con- 
gress of Teschen, by which Charles Theodore, Elector 
Palatine of the House of Neuberg, obtained the Bavarian 
hat, on the 13th May, 1779. The Emperor was com- 
pelled to relinquish his unjust claims, and tranquillity 
was restored to Germany, enabling Count Lacy, then in 
his sixty-first year, once more to sheath the sword ; and 
this command which he held in the Bavarian dispute was 
the last act of importance performed by him in the service 
of Austria. 

He had now the rank of Field-M!arshal which at the 



162 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

age of tliirty-six he had declined, on the plea that his 
achievements were unworthy of it. He had the Grand 
^ross of Maria Theresa ; he was a member of the Aulic 
Council, Chief of the Staff, and General of the Ordnance. 

During his command-in-chief of the Austrian ai*my, the 
following romantic incident occurred. 

A young Neapolitan noble, who, by war or gambling, 
had been reduced to poverty, became anxious to obtain 
military employment in the service of Austria ; and on 
being furnished with a letter of introduction to Lacy 
from another soldier of fortune who served in the army 
of Ferdinand IV., he travelled on foot towards Vienna. 
He reached the Austrian territories almost penniless, and 
one evening found himself at a poor way-side inn, not far 
from the capital. In the drinking room he met three 
officers who were also travelling towards Vienna ; and they, 
with the frankness of German soldiers, invited the stran- 
ger to sup with them, and in the course of the evening 
he told them what were his views and wishes, and that 
all his hopes depended upon Lacy. 

" I regret to say that your plan is a bad one," said one 
of the Austrian officers who wore the cross of Mai*ia 
Theresa ; " we have had a long peace, and so many of our 
young nobility are crowding to Vienna in search of mili- 
tary employment, that I fear there is little likelihood of 
Marshal Lacy being able to befriend a stranger." 

Undeterred by this, the young Italian said that he was 
iesolved to persevere; and he added an account of himself, 
of his family, their past importance and services in war, 
of his present necessity and circumstances ; and all this 
was related with a candour and modesty which so pleased 
Mm who appeared the senior officer, that he said, — 

" Well, sir, since you are resolved to try your fortune 
at Vienna, I will give you a letter to the Marshal Lacy ; 
it may prove of use to you, for he knows me well." 

Furnished with this additional credential, the Italian 
reached Vienna. He waited on Lacy and presented his 
papers ; all, at least, save the Austrian officer s letter, which 
unfortunately he had mislaid. Lacy read them, and 



THE LACYS. 163 

frankly told him that to grant what he wished was impos- 
sible. Crushed by this, the Italian retired in desperation, 
for the state of his funds could ill brook delay. Three 
days elapsed, until chancing to find the letter he had ob- 
tained so peculiarly at the inn, he again presented himself 
at the levee of Lacy and delivered it. The marshal 
opened it, and on reading the contents, his face expressed 
the utmost astonishment. 

" How comes it, sir," said he, with severity, " that you 
did not deliver this letter to me sooner ?" 

" Because it was mislaid ; and from the casual manner 
in which it was received, I deemed it of little value." 

" Do you know from whom it comes 1" 

" No," replied the Italian ; " but the writer wore the 
gold cross of Maria Theresa." 

" That ojBficer with the gold cross was the Emperor — 
Joseph II. You ask me for a subaltern's commission, 
and he desires me to give you the rank of captain in a 
newly-raised regiment, and I have much j^leasure in obey- 
ing his orders." 

This young volunteer died a colonel of Hussars, and 
fell in battle against Custine, on the Upper Rhine, in 1792. 

Lacy's plans of military reform won him a high renown 
in the Empire, to which he extended the mode of defence 
previously employed with such success upon the frontiers 
of Bohemia. He established the great fortress of Konings- 
gratz, and strengthened the defences of Theresienstadt and 
Josej)hstadt, which are still the admiration of all engi- 
neers. He regulated the war finance by a system of 
economy, still remembered with gratitude in Austria. 
True and faithful to the land he served, he was ever ready 
to sacrifice his personal interests and feelings for the good ^ 
of the State. Of this he gave a prominent example in 
1788, when Joseph II., having experienced only reverses 
in his contest with the Porte, was recommended by Lacy 
to entrust all to Baron Loudon (with whom he had ever 
been on terms of coldness), as being the only general capa- 
ble of repairing the misfortunes of the war. 

Finding his health failing, he visited the Spa at Baden, 
n 2 



164 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

and on his return to VienDa died, full of years and honours, 
on the 28th November, 1801. 

He bequeathed to the Archduke Charles an extensive 
park in the environs, with a request that the people 
should have free use of it. 

He had enjoyed the trust and confidence of Maria The- 
nesa, of Francis I., and of Joseph II., to the full ; and 
lint) I he became enfeebled by time and wounds, he had 
more State patronage than any other subject in the em- 
))ire. Frederick the Great had the highest esteem for his 
character as a soldier, and pronounced him the first tac- 
tician of the age, and assuredly the King of Prussia was 
no mean authority. They had often met in the field. 
With his characteristic acuteness, Frederick thus spoke 
of the two greatest generals against whom he led the 
Prussian armies. 

" I admire the dispositions of Lacy, but I tremble at the 
onset of Loudon !" 

Loudon, his companion and rival — of whom elsewhere 
— ended his career victoriously, after defeating the Turks 
and capturing Belgrade with the same soldiers whom 
Lacy had led to many a battle-field. 

Francis Anthony Count de Lacy, the celebrated 
Spanish general and diplomatist, was the next member of 
this Irish family who attained an eminent position in the 
history of Europe. 

He was born in Spain, whither his father had followed 
the Duke of Berwick, in 1731, and after receiving the 
usual rudiments of education, commenced his military 
career at the early age of sixteen, in the brave old Irish 
regiment of Ulster infantry, then in the service of his 
Most Catholic Majesty Ferdinand YL, who had succeeded 
his father, Philip Duke of Anjou, on the Spanish throne, 
in the preceding year, 1746. 

Francis Anthony Lacy served with this regiment in 
the Italian campaign of 1747, which was undertaken to 
advance the ciaims of the Spanish Bourbons to the crowns 
of Naples and Sicily, and to the Duchy of Milan, which 
had been claimed by Philip V., as successor to the House 



THE LACYS. 1G5 

of Austria ; while he also demanded Parma, Placentia, 
and Tuscany", in right of his queen, though he had been 
obliged to relinquish them all by the solemn treaty of 
Utrecht ; but such is the faith kept by princes. 

The Irish regiment of the young Count Lacy was with 
the army of the Count de Gages, the Spanish commander- 
in-chief, who had then under his orders the combined 
armies of Spain and Naples. Genoa had revolted against 
the Austrians ; Marshal Boufflers had entered it at the 
head of 4500 Frenchmen, and thus encouraged, the 
Genoese resolved to die, rather than submit to the tyranny 
of the House of Hapsburg, whose armies made incredible 
exertions to recover it. Then ensued the passage of the 
Var by the Marshal Duke de Belleisle ; the storming of 
Montalbano and other places ; the investment of Genoa 
by the Austrians and Piedmontese, and other operations 
of that extensive campaign, in which le Regiment Irian- 
dais dUltonie Infanterie bore a most prominent part, 
more so, perhaps, than their enemies relished, till the 
naval victories of the British Admirals Anson and Warren 
in the East Indian Ocean, and those of Fox and Hawke 
elsewhere, forced Louis XV. and his allies to listen to 
those proposals by which peace was secured to Europe by 
the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, on the 7th October, 1748. 

Passing through all the successive grades with honour 
to himself, Count Lacy, in his thirty-first year, obtained 
the colonelcy of the Ulster regiment, and, at its head, 
served in the war against Portugal in 1762, when Charles 
III. of Spain added to the calamities of his unfortunate 
neighbour Don Joseph, by invading his small dominions 
with a powerful army, which threatened with still further 
destruction his hapless city of Lisbon — then recently 
ruined by the great earthquake. One Spanish column, 
under the Marquis de Sarria, entered Portugal on the 
north ; a second, under the Count O'Reilly, took Chaves ; 
a third entered by Beira and spread along the Tagus. 
This wanton invasion was suggested to Spain by France^ 
as a means of insulting an ally of their common foe — 
Britain — and also of extending by conquest the power d 
the Houses of Bourbon 



166 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNK. 

Britain supplied Portugal with arms, ammunition, and 
10,000 men, under Brigadier General Burgoyne, who 
skilfully co-operated with the Count de la Lippe, a 
German, and with General Forbes, a Scot, who commanded 
the army of Don Joseph. Two regiments of Catholics 
were raised in Ireland especially for this service, and 
these are still existing in the British line. 

In all the operations of this war Lacy acquitted himself 
with the greatest honour. 

In 1780, he was appointed Commandant of the Spanish 
Artillery, and as such was employed at the famous Siege 
of Gibraltar, and was present with the army which, under 
the Duke de Crillon (the conqueror of Minorca), made 
"the last desperate and unparalleled efforts" to restore 
the key of the Mediterranean to the hands of King 
Charles III. 

General Elliot of Stobs, in Midlothian, with 7000 men, 
valiantly defended the rock against 40,000 soldiers who 
assailed it by land with 200 pieces of cannon : and against 
the combined fleets of France and Spain, forty-seven sail 
of the line, seven three-deckers (the strongest that had 
ever been built), eighty gun-boats, and a swarm of frigates 
and smaller vessels, which opened a shower of shot from 
400 pieces of cannon against him. 

The first shot was fired on the 12th January, 1780, 
and it killed a woman in Gibraltar. The Spanish camp 
was crowded by French noblesse and Spanish hidalgos, 
who had all hastened there to behold ihefall of this great 
fortress. 

Under Lacy, the Spanish artillerists fired with great 
precision and effect ; but the determined old Geiieml 
Elliot defended Gibraltar with the most obstinate bravery ; 
and General Boyd (his countryman) recommended, for the? 
first time, a discharge of red-hot balls, which had the most 
disastrous effect upon the Spaniards by land and sea ; for 
at least 1500 of them perished. The British fired 716 
barrels of powder and 8300 rounds of cannon-balls (more 
\han half of which were red hot) between the time of 
firing the first cannon and the last, on the 2nd Febmary, 
*.783, when the French and Spaniards Avere completely 



THE LACYS. 167 

discomfited, and a peace was signed, which ceded the 
fortress to Britain for ever. 

For his services I^acy obtained the Grand Cross of 
Charles III., and the rank of Commander of the Cross of 
San lago, an old Spanish order of chivalry instituted by 
King E,amiro, in commemoration of a victory over th© 
Moors in 1030 — their badge is a red cross in the form o| 
a sword. He was also made Titular of the rich Comman* 
derie of Las Cazas Buenas, at Merida, in Estramadura. 

After the peace between Spain and Britain was firmly 
established, he was sent successively as plenipotentiary to 
Gustavus III. of Sweden, and to the Empress Catherine 
11. of Russia (widow of the Czar Peter III.) ; and the 
success he obtained in his embassies proved that he had 
secured for himself and his royal master the love and 
esteem of the courts of Stockholm and St. Peters- 
burg. 

Immediately on his return fresh honours were heapedl 
upon him ; he was named, par interim, Commandant 
General of the Coast of Granada and Member of the 
Supreme Council of War ; then Lieutenant-General of the 
Spanish Army, Commandant of the Corps of Poyal Artil- 
lery, and sole Inspector-General of that branch of the 
service. He was also made Inspector- General of the 
manufactories of arms, cannon, and all the munitions of 
war throughout Spain and the two Indies. 

In consequence of an unlooked-for emeute in Barcelona 
the governor of which had not fulfilled his trust, u 
March, 1789, Lacy was appointed to the important and 
arduous ofiice of Governor and Captain-General of the 
Province of Catalonia. The Catalonians, who had long 
resisted the authority of the kings of Spain, and had fre- 
quently risen in arms to assert their independence and 
choose princes of their own, were still liable to partial 
insurrections against the viceroys, to whose yoke they 
submitted with sullen apathy, while they treated their 
monarchs with hatred and contempt, till the conciliatory 
visit of Charles IV. But Lacy contrived to win the love 
and esteem even of those sullen and jealous provincials, 
ttnd in every step of his career gave constant proofs of 



168 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

disinterestedness, skill, and devotion to the king and 
country of his adoption. 

He seconded with great energy the measures taken by 
the Spanish Government to prevent the principles of the 
Erench revolutionists from crossing the Pyrenees. " Et 
fut reconduire sur la frontiere le consul de France, qui 
avoit tenu des propos indiscrets k Barcelone. Par le 
meme motif," adds a French writer, " Lacy retenait dan^? 
catalogue les emigres Francois." 

The pupils of the Royal School of Artillery at Segovia 
obtained from Count Lacy the amelioration of their severe 
system of discipline, an augmentation of the numbei- of 
their scholars and cadets, and the increase of certain 
branches of knowledge relating to their branch of the 
military profession, by the establishment of the schools of 
chemistry, of mineralogy, and of pyrotechny, of all of 
which he urged the creation. 

Some have supposed that Count Lacy was more ad- 
mirable for his lofty spirit, his sparkling wit, and tall 
and handsome figure — which approached the gigantic — 
than for his talents as a soldier; but his amiable and 
conciliatory character have never been denied, while his 
benevolence, his Christian virtues, and patriotism were 
extolled even by his enemies ; for he stood too high in 
the favour of the Spanish King to have friends alone. 
Such was Francis Anthony Lacy. 

He died at Barcelona, in the time of Charles lY., on 
the 31st December, 1792, in the sixty-first year of his age. 

On that occasion the most universal regrets were 
manifested at his funeral, which was conducted with great 
splendour and solemnity ; and the officers and cadets of 
the Spanish artillery, by whom he was sincerely beloved, 
celebrated him in high eulogies, which were published iu 
all the journals of Madrid and Catalonia. 

Don Antonio Ricardo Carillo, of Albornoz, succeeded 
him as Captain-general of Catalonia. 

Patrick Lacy, the brother of Count Anthony Francis, 
was major of the Ulster Regiment of Irish Infantry in 
the service of Spain, and died early in life, leaving a son 



THE LACYS. 169 

named Louis, wlio was justly celebrated for Iiis bravery, 
his misfortunes, and romantic history. 

Louis Lacy was born on the 11th January, 1775, at 
San Roque, a judicial partido and town of Andalusia, six 
miles distant from Gibraltar, after the capture of which 
it was founded, in 1704. His father, Major Lacy, dying 
while he was yet an infant, his mother married an officer 
of the Brussels Regiment of infantry in the service of 
Charles III. Young Louis, at the early age of nine years, 
entered this corps as a cadet, with his stepfather, and 
accompanied it to Puerto Rico, one of the Spanish West 
India islands, which was used then as a penal colony ; 
it had been so for two centuries before. Thus a strong 
garrison was maintained at the capital, San Juan de Puerto 
Rico. 

As he grew older. Lacy showed so decided a vocation 
for the life of a soldier, that on his return to Spain, in 
1789, Charles IV. removed him into the Ulster Regiment, 
among the gallant Irishmen of which his family name 
was held in high veneration ; and in that battalion of 
exiles lie obtained a company in 1794. 

In that year, when the French Republican forces in- 
vadt;d Spain, and commenced those operations which 
ended in the capture of Fontarabia and San Sebastian, 
Lacy was, with the regiment of Ulster, attached to the 
army of Catalonia, and fighting against them. The 
French were 40,000 strong, the Spaniards only 20,000. 

In Catalonia their progress was small ; but in Gui- 
puzcoa many places of importance fell into their hands ; 
for the Court, languid and slow in all its warlike opera- 
tions, opposed to them forces of inferior strength, and un- 
happily more accustomed to defeat than victory. Belle- 
garde was besieged by the French, who defeated the 
Spaniards before it ; yet its commandant, the Marquis de 
Vallesantero, held out bravely. On the shores of the 
Bay of Biscay the arms of the invaders were successful ; 
they made themselves masters of Passages, and the strong 
old castle of San Sebastian ; they penetrated as far as 
Tolosa, assaulted Placentia, and besieged Pampeluna, 



170 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

Lacy is recorded as having personally and particularly 
signalized himself in battle against the French on the 
5th of February, and the 5th, 16th, and 25th days ot 
June, 1794 ; and to these circumstances their own 
military historians bear honourable testimony. 

Driven to extremities, Bellegarde surrendered on the 
17th of September; and the brave Conde de la Union, 
after making a desperate and futile attempt to save it, 
fell in battle for his country, on the heights of Figueras, 
where 9000 Spaniards and 171 pieces of cannon were 
taken. The fall of Kosas followed, and the Court of 
Madrid trembled for the safety of the Catalonian coast. 
But the war was ended in the following year by the peace 
of Basle ; and up to that period Lacy served, with the 
Regiment of Ulster, with honourable distinction, and 
attained great experience in the art of war — ^that arduous 
profession to which all the exiles of his family had so 
successfully and especially dedicated their lives. 

In December, 1795, he embarked with his regiment 
for the Canary Islands. While there he unfortunately 
had a love intrigue with a young Spanish lady, of great 
personal attractions; and in gaining her favour, won, also, 
the enmity of the governor and captain-general of the 
colony, who, by ill-luck, proved to be his rival. Em-aged 
by the success of the handsome Lacy, the proud and re- 
vengeful Spaniard was so weak and unjust as to exile him 
from his regiment and the society of his companions in 
arms, by banishing him to Ferro, one of the smallest and 
most westerly of the Canary Islands. An arid and bar- 
ren place, it is a mere mountain pass, composed of dark 
grey land, dotted here and there by sombre bushes. 

Indignant at such arbitrary treatment, Louis Lacy 
wrote bitter and fiery letters to the captain-general, who 
made him a prisoner, and brought him before a Consijo 
de Guerra, or court-martial, by sentence of which he was 
condemned to imprisonment as one labouring under 
mental alienation, and, after all his gallant services, waA 
deprived of his commission. 

After a time he was permitted to return to Spain, and 
was sent to Cadiz en retrait. 



THE LACYS. 171' 

At that time Spain, having made peace with France, 
was at war with John YI. of Portugal. This contest 
was productive of no important event, and was termi- 
nated in 1801. Lacy arrived in Europe just as the last 
campaign was opened against the Portuguese; and hearing 
of it, he vainly solicited from the government of Charles 
IV. the honour of being permitted to serve in the Spanish 
army as a simple grenadier ; but the mal-influence of his 
enemy, the Governor of the Canaries, still followed him, 
and this humble request was refused him. Poor Lacy, 
in bitterness of spirit and almost without a coin in his 
purse, resolved to push his fortunes elsewhere. He 
wandered on foot through the Peninsula, crossed the 
Pyrenees, and, like an humble wayfaring pedestrian, 
passed through France, and arrived at the town of Bou- 
logne-sur-mer in October, 1803, when Bonaparte was 
assembling his great army for the invasion of Britain. 

Finding himself destitute, and without resources, Lacy 
enlisted in the 6th Regiment of light infantry of the 
French line, as a private soldier ; but his previous mili- 
tary knowledge, which was soon discovered by his com- 
rades and officers, obtained for him, in one month, the 
rank of sergeant. About the same time General Clarke 
(who was afterwards, in 1809, created Due de Feltre)- 
having heard of him, related the history of Lacy, of his 
father and uncle, to the Emperor Napoleon. Struck by 
a narrative so singular, Napoleon sent for the sergeant, 
and being charmed by his manner and bearing, in virtue 
of the rank he had previously held, generously gave him 
the commission of captain in the Irish Legion, which was 
then being organized at Morlaix, under Arthur O'Connor, 
for the service of France. General Clarke, Minister of 
War under Napoleon, being of Irish descent, had the idea 
of gaining over some of the old Irish aristocracy; and 
}Tadgett, another Irishman in the Foreign Office, had a 
scheme for enlisting Irish prisoners in the French prisons; 
a scheme which proved, however, unsuccessful. Arthur 
O'Connor had been M.P. for Philipstown, but rebelled in 
1798, and after being imprisoned at Dublin, and tried for 
iigh treason at Maidstone, he was acquitted. In France 



172 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

he became a genera], married tlie daughter of the Marquis 
de Condorcet, and died at Bignon in 1852. 

From Morlaix Lncy marched with his regiment to 
Quimper-Corentin, an old manufacturing town in the 
departement of Finisterre ; and while there became ac- 
quainted with a pretty French girl, Mademoiselle Guei- 
mer, to whom he became attached, and whom he married, 
in June, 1806, although her parents — old royalists pro- 
bably — were bitterly opposed to her espousing a soldier of 
fortune in the Legion of Exiles. 

Lacy was then in his thirty -first year. 

Three days afterwards the Irish Legion marched for 
Antwerp, and he took his wife with him. From Antwerp 
the Irish went to the pestilential Isle of Walcheren; 
there also his young wife accompanied him, and he 
■obtained a majority. 

In 1807, he was appointed Clief-du-Battailon of the 
Irish attached to the army which Murat, Grand Duke of 
Berg, was to command in Spain, for the purpose of ac- 
complishing Bonaparte's unjustifiable scheme of usurpa- 
tion and conquest. 

Lacy's generous mind became deeply agitated at the 
prospect of being obliged to serve against that nation 
among whom his exiled family had found a home; and, 
notwithstanding the bitterness yet rankling in his mind 
against those who had treated him so ill in Spain, and 
who had dismissed him from the Regiment of Ulster, he 
determined not to draw a sword against the country of 
his father's adoption, and with sorrow sent his young 
wife, with their infant son, back to her family at Quimper, 
there to await the settlement of the Peninsular aflfaii-s. 
As Chef-du-Battailon, he still remained with the army 
which crossed the Pyrenees, in virtue of the base conspi- 
racy of the Escurial, and which marched unmolested 
through the barrier-towns of San Sebastian, Figueras, 
Pampeluna, and Barcelona, in the spring of 1808 ; and in 
the summer of that year he found himself with the French 
I army at Madrid. 

The events of the 2nd of May— the decoying of the 



THE LACYS. 173 

lioyal Family to Bayonne by Bonaparte — their compul- 
sory renunciation of the Spanish crown — and other dark 
transactions, decided the noble Lacy on the course he 
should pursue. He relinquished his command of the 
Irish, and quietly quitting the capital, surrendered him- 
self a prisoner of war to the venerable Spanish general, 
Don Gregorio de la Cuesta, who, in his seventieth year, 
still held the command of the forces to which Ferdinand 
VII. had apjiointed him, as Captain-General of Castile 
and Leon. 

Struck with the story and magnanimity of Lacy, and 
revering his character, Cuesta, the last of the old Spanish 
cavaliers, appointed him at once Lieutenant-Colonel-Com- 
mandant of the Battalion of Ledesma, which had been 
raised in the small province of that name, near Salamanca ; 
and he gave all his energy and talent to discipline this 
regiment. For now Spain had risen bravely against the 
invaders, and the sturdy Asturians and Galicians, under 
Don Joachim Blake, a young officer of Irish parentage, 
had commenced the War of Independence. In all the 
operations of the Spaniards Lacy fought gallantly, at the 
head of his new regiment ; but more particularly at 
Logrono, in Old Castile, and on the retreat to the Ebro, 
at Guadalaxara, thirty-two miles from Madrid ; after the 
betrayal of which, the Spanish vanguard, which, under 
Venegas, had saved the army at Buvierca, by so bravely 
defending the pass, entered the city on the night of the 
4th of December, 1809. The battalions (tercios) "of 
Ledesma and Salamanca, under Don Louis Lacy and Don 
Alexandre de Hore," skirmished for three hours with the 
French that night, on the banks of the Henares ; but 
after a desperate encounter, the flower of the Spanish 
troops had to retire before them. 

He was now appointed Colonel of the Burgos Regiment 
of Infantry ; and in the same year defended several de- 
riles of the Sierra Morena — that long, steep chain of 
mountains which the novel of Cervantes (more even than 
the valour of his countrymen) has made famous in Europe, 
and which divides Andalusia from New Castile. At 



174 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

Toralva he surprised and captured 3000 Frencli cavalry, 
and afterwards took command of the Spanish advanced 
guard, with the rank of Brigadier-General. 

He distinguished himself again at Cuesta della Reyna, 
and at the beautiful old town of Aranjuez. While 
Venegas occupied it, he despatched Lacy with a division 
to drive the enemy, 2000 strong, out of Toledo, which 
(as he did not wish to destroy the houses from whence 
they fired upon him, as it was a Spanish town) did not 
succeed. He next occupied Puente Larga on the Zarama, 
which was crossed by the foe ; and the Spanish general, 
fearing his retreat would be cut off, ordered Lacy to de- 
stroy the Queen's Bridge, and rejoin him, which he skil- 
fully achieved ; but not before the enemy's cavalry from 
Cuesta della Reyna had attacked him, and driven his 
troops to some heights above the river, the passage of 
which he left Don Luis Riguelmo to defend, with three 
battalions and four field-pieces. He was present, also, at 
the engagements at Almonacid de Zoreta, on the left 
bank of the Tagus, where, for nine consecutive hours, he 
remained under fire at the head of his brigade, and where 
4000 Spaniards fell ; and again he met the French at the 
pass of Despina Perros, and in the unfortunate battle of 
Ocana, where Venegas, in his chivalric attempt to save 
his friends, the people of La Mancha, rushed, with his 
cavalry only, on a force consisting of 5000 foot and 800 
hoi-se, and was defeated with great loss on the 19th 
November, 1809. 

The repeated reverses of the Spaniards after the battles 
of Ocana and Medellin (which was lost solely by the 
indecision of Don Francisco de Eguia), forced Brigadier 
Lacy to retire into Cadiz, where, as a reward for his ser- 
vices, he was named successively, Sub-Inspector, Major- 
General, Mariscial de Campo, and Commander of the 
Isle de Leon, which is a triangular tract of ground sepa- 
rated from the mainland by the river of San Pedro. 
The river side was strongly fortified, and the chan- 
nel flanked by batteries ; the whole position, as it con- 
tained 50,000 inhabitants, was one of great trust and 



THE LACYS. 175 

importance. Here he directed the increase of the fortifi- 
cations, and commanded in many of those desperate and 
sanguinary sorties which were made against the enemy, 
who boasted that the Insurrection was confined to this 
small corner of conquered Spain. And now ensued the 
long blockade, which was not raised until the British won 
the battle of Salamanca, in 1812. 

On the 5th of May, 1811, Lacy took an active part in 
the battle of Chiclana, which was fought on the eastern 
bank of the channel of San Pedro, and immediately oppo- 
site the Isle de Leon. The brave defence at Cadiz greatly 
encouraged the Spaniards elsewhere. 

In June he was appointed Commandant-General of 
Catalonia ; but, unfortunately, was unable to prevent the 
ancient seaport of Tarragona from falling into the hands 
of the French. Indefatigable and unwearying, he rallied 
the remains of tlie Spanish forces, and, with the Guerillas, 
organized a new army, at the head of which, for a year 
and eight months, he maintained a constant, an obstinate, 
and unequal struggle with the troops of Napoleon. His 
glorious courage and undying perseverance gained for him, 
in 1812, the chief command of the army in Gallicia, about 
10,000 strong. This force joined Lord Wellington ; but, 
aftei' active operations ceased, marched back into the pro- 
vince from which it was named, and went into winter- 
quarters. On the new campaign being opened, he ap- 
peared at the head of the brave Gallegos, and continued 
to disj^lay the highest military talent against the enemy, 
until they were driven over the Pyrenees by the British ; 
after which, the battles of Orthes and Toulouse, and the 
capture of Paris by the allies, by securing the peace of 
18.14, restored tranquillity to ravaged Europe, and Ferdi- 
nand YII. to the throne of Spain. 

Strange to say, this event, for which he had struggled 
so hard, was unfortunate for Lacy, who, in consequence 
of his known attachment to the constitution of the Cortes, 
was deprived of all his offices — a base return for his 
many noble services — and he was coldly permitted to 
retire in obscurity, with his family, to Vinaroz, in the 



176 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

province of Valencia, where he spent two years in peacev 
though brooding over his wrongs, and planning means of 
redress. 

In 181 G, fatally for himself, he returned to active life ; 
for, since the death of Parlier, and other brave men, who 
had fallen in attempting to secure to Spain that inde- 
pendence for which they had struggled against France, 
the eyes of all the Liberalists were turned on Louis Lacy, 
and in him their hopes reposed. 

Having gone to Calvetes, in Catalonia, to drink the 
mineral waters, it chanced that he met there an old com- 
panion in arms, General Milano, and his brother, Don 
Eaphael Milano, with two other Spanish gentlemen, whose 
political sentiments coincided with his own ; and, after 
several secret meetings, they boldly resolved on re-estab- 
lishing the Cortes at the point of the sword ; for Lacy, 
relying on the sympathy of several regiments, and the 
regard they paid to his name and achievements, hoped to 
make them revolt in his favour, on the 5th April, 1817, 
and proclaim the Constitution. 

Denounced by two traitors, the whole enterprise fell 
to pieces, and the four projectors failed to save them- 
selves.. 

Abandoned nearly by all on whom he had relied, the 
Unfortunate Lacy was arrested, with a few faithful friends, 
and conveyed, under care of a strong guard of soldiers, to 
a prison at Barcelona, where he was hastily tried by a 
subservient military commission, and sentenced to death — 
a doom which he heard with a calmness that staggered 
even the stern and partial judge who pronounced it. 

As a rising of the Catalonians in his favour was feared 
and expected, the officials of the arbitrary Government at 
Barcelona secretly embarked him on board of a small 
vessel, at midnight, on the 20th June ; and, resolving not 
to be cheated of their victim, sailed for the island of Ma- 
jorca; and there he was quite as secretly landed on a 
solitary part of the coast, and conducted, on the night of 
the 4th July, to the Castle of Belver, which was ganusoned 
by a regiment of Neapolitan soldiers. 

At four o'clock next morning he was suddenly brought 



THE LACYS. 177 

cit of tlie fortress, j ust as clay was breaking, and conducted 
to tlie deep fosse before the gates ; there he was barba- 
rously shot by a platoon of Italians, pursuant to the orders 
of those who had conveyed him from Barcelona. 

Louis Lacy had already faced death too often to receive 
it otherwise than with the hereditary courage and coolnesf 
v»-hich had distinguished him through his eventful life, ant 
h efell with his face to his destroyers. 

His body was deposited in the old cathedral chuvcli of 
San Dominic, at Palma, the capital of the island ; but 
there it was exhumed, in 1820, and conveyed, with much 
ix3ligious pomp and solemnity, to Barcelona, and interred 
near the remains of his uncle, the Captain-General Count 
Francis Anthony ; while the newly-established Cortes, 
vainly to honour the memory of one who had died for 
them, named his son tlie first grenadier of the Spanish 
army. 

Thus perished Louis Lacy, in his forty-second year, one 
who, more even than Biego, had secured, by his patriotism, 
the Revolution of 1820. 

" Lacy" says a French writer, " etait done d'une forte 
constitution, et d'une ame ardent, energique et genereuse. 
Habile g6n6ral, intrepide dans les dangers, il s etait dis- 
tingue par des /aits d' amies, et par un patriotisme dignea 
des Grecs et des RomainsF 



178 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 



Colonel Malttr fuller, 

OP THE IRISH MUSKETEERS. 



In the army of Ferdinand II., Emperor of Austria (who 
succeeded his brother Matthias in 1619), then commanded 
by Albrecht, Count of Wallenstein and Duke of Fried- 
land, were two brave Irish soldiers of foi-tune — James 
Butler, who commanded a regiment of Irish dragoons ; 
and his younger brother, Walter, who was colonel of a 
regiment of Irish musketeers. 

These gentlemen were nearly related to James, then 
Earl of Ormond, and were driven to seek service in foreign 
wars by the result of a quarrel between their family and 
King James VI. of Scotland and I. of England, who had 
unjustly wrested from the Butlers their valuable estates, 
and bestowed them upon his Scottish favourite, Sir 
Bichard Preston, Laird of Craigmillar (near Edinburgh), 
and Knight of the Bath. This gentleman, who was after- 
wards created Lord Dingwall in the peerage of Scotland, 
and Earl of Desmond in that of Ireland, 6th June, 1614, 
claimed Ormond in right of his wife. Lady Elizabeth 
Butler, who was the only daughter of Thomas, Earl of 
Ormond, and widow of Theobald, Viscount of Theo- 
phelim. Such was the undue partiality of James 
for his countryman, the Viscount Dingwall, that in 
1614, when Sir Walter, eldest son of Sir John Butler, 
third brother of the old Earl of Ormond, inherited that 
title, the Ormond estates (wliich in ancient times were an 
Irish principality on the left bank of the middle Shannon, 
in the northern part of Munster) were bestowed upon 
the stranger; and the king, to enforce his claim, ^vrt;:e 
» very peremptory letter to the Irish Privy Council. Six- 



COLOXEL WALTER BUTLER. 179 

Arthur Chichester, Baron of Belfast, was at that time 
Lord Deputy and Chief Governor of Ireland. Finding 
the Council averse to this injustice, James, who was no- 
torious for entertaining the most absurd ideas of his pre- 
rogative, took the matter into his own hands, and^ 
charging the Earl of Ormond with " non-compliance," 
threw him into the Fleet prison, where he remained for 
eight years, enduring great want and misery, while all 
his old hereditary possessions were seized and confiscated,, 
by which his family were reduced and ruined. 

Preston, Lord Dingwall, was drowned in June, 1621 
when on his way from Dublin to Scotland. He left an only 
daughter. Lady Elizabeth Preston, through whom his- 
titles and Irish estates went afterwards to the Earls of 
Ossory. 

The trouble in which the family became involved, and 
the wandering spirit which possessed the Irish, like the- 
Scots of those days, led the earl's two cousins, James- 
and Walter, into the Imperial service, where they soon 
obtained the command of regiments, and served under 
John de Tscerclai, the Count Tilly, and the great 
"Wallenstein, in most of the battles of the Thirty Years* 
War. 

In 1631, Walter Butler, with his battalion of Irish 
musketeers, formed part of the Imperial garrison which 
defended the town of Frankfort-ou-the-Oder against the 
victorious army of Gustavus Adolj)hus. 

Frankfort was even then a large town, and being capital 
of the middle mark of Brandenburg, was remarkable for 
its fairs and university. As it stood only forty-eight 
miles from Berlin, the imperial generals were anxious 
about its safety. Hannibal Count de Schomberg, the 
successor of old Torquato Conti, commanded the garrison^ 
which consisted of ten thousand horse and foot. The 
town was surrounded by strong ramparts and gates, but 
was divided in two by the Oder. 

At the head of eighteen thousand men, with two hun- 
dred pieces of cannon, and a pontoon bridge one hundred 
and eighty feet long, the warlike King of Sweden marched 
along the banks of the river, and appeared near the towa 



180 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

on the 1st day of April. No troops ever presented a finer 
uspect than the Swedish, as they marched in several co- 
lumns to the investment of Frankfort, the attack on 
which was planned by Sir John Hepburn, of Athelstane- 
ford (afterwards a marechal de camp in France), who then 
commanded the green brigade of Scots in the service of 
Gustavus. In the army of the latter were no less than 
fifteen thousand Scots at this time. 
There is an old rhyme, which says — 

" He who lyes before Frankfort a year and a daye, 
Is lord of the empire for ever and aye." 

But, knowing well that the fiery King of Sweden would 
not remain a week if he could help it, Count Schomberg, 
the commander-in-chief; the Count de Montecuculi, an 
Italian; Campmaster-General TeifTenbach, and Colonel 
Herbertstein, made the most vigorous preparations to 
defend the place ; and to Walter Butler and his Irish 
musketeers assigned a post of the greatest danger. 

"Take him in every respect," says the historian of Gus- 
tavus, " he was one of the bravest officers in the Em- 
peror's service ; but as the Imperialists envied this gallant 
foreigner, care was taken to place him in the iveakest part 
of the fortification ; or, to speak more to the purpose, in 
a part that scarcely deserved to be called a fortification.'* 
In no way either daunted or disheartened, Butler resolved 
to make the best of it, and ordered his Irishmen to dig a 
trench and form a breastwork in rear of it ; and thus, 
iifter incredible labour, they formed a solid rampart in 
one day ; but that evening he went to Count Schomberg, 
and represented " that the post assigned to him was 
almost incapable of being defended, and that unless a 
sally was made that very night, to prevent the Swedes 
and Scots from coming nearer his indifferent parapet, the 
j)lace would be taken." 

But Schomberg heard him without interest or atten- 
tion. 

" Give me but five troops of cuirassiers, Count Han- 
nibal," s-aid he, " and five of dragoons, and at the peril of 



COLONEL WALTER BUTLER. 181 

life aud reputation, I will undertake to make the Swedes 
raise the siege." 

Envious of the honour already won by the stranger, 
the Imperialist declined alike the offer and advice, though 
secretly he dispatched, on the very service coveted by 
Walter Butler, a certain German commander, whose 
cuirassiers failed to perform the duty required, for they 
were driven in by the Scottish Highlanders of Gustavus, 
and their leader was shot, while Major Sinclair, of Sir John 
Hepburn's Scots musketeers, followed them almost into 
the town. 

Covered by the Rhinegrave's cuirassiers, under Colonel 
Hume, of Carrolsidebrae, Hepburn's brigade of Scots in- 
aenched themselves before the great gate of the town ; 
che yellow brigade occupied the Custrin road ; and the 
white brigade of Swedes was spread throughout the 
suburbs. After a smart cannonade, on Palm Sunday, 
the 3rd of April, the King of Sweden ordered a general 
assault. 

" The Swedish soldiers w^anting ladders for the scalirrg 
of the walls, runne to certaines Boores' houses hard bye, 
whence they bring away the racks in the stables, and 
those others without, upon which the Boores used to 
lay their cowes' meat. With these and some store of 
hatchets they had gotten, to a mightie strong palisadoo 
of the enemies' neere the walls they goe, which they fell 
to hewing downe. The enemies labouring to defend the 
stocket or palisadoe, to it on both sides they fall ; the 
bullets darkening the very aire with a showre of lead. 
The Imperialists being at length, by main force, beaten 
off, retire through a sally-port into the toAvne. Being 
entered within the outer port, there stay they and shoottt 
amaine. The King calling Sir John Hebron and Colonel 
Lumsden unto him — 'Now, my hrave Scotts (saies he), ' re- 
member your countrymen slain at New Brandenburg I' '"* 

The Scottish infantry advanced w^ith their pikes in the 
front rank and their musketeers firing over their heads ; 
thus a terrible slaughter was soon made of the Imperial- 

* Swedish Intelligencer, 1632. 



182 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

ists. " One Scottish man," continues the quaint record 
of the Swedish war, " killed eighteen men with his own 
liand. Here did Lumsden take eighteen colours; yea, 
«uch testimony showed he of his valour, that the king 
after the battle bade him aske what he wolde, and he 
wolde give it to him." This brave officer was Colonel 
Sir James Lumsden, of Invergellie, in Fifeshire, after- 
wards made Governor of Newcastle by the Scottish Par- 
liament, and a major-general in the army which invaded 
England in 1640. 

Meanwhile Gustavus was pressing with his own brigade 
Tipon the quarter occupied by Butler and his Irish mus- 
keteers, i^^ho defended themselves with incredible resolu- 
tion; so much so, that when one of them was dragged 
over the rampart, he was asked by the Swedish king, 
*' what soldiers these were who fought so valiantly f 
•*' Colonel Butler's Irish regiment," replied the prisoner. 
This was at half- past one in the day, and Gustavus, on 
liearing it (according to Harte), drew off his brigade, and 
in despair of forcing a passage through the Irish, assailed 
the strong Gueben gate, and about four in the afternoon 
loroke into the town through the Germans. 

The Governor, Schomberg, Campmaster-General TiefFen- 
bach, the Count de Montecuculi, Colonels Behem and Her- 
bertstein, with most of the Imperialists, fled out of the city 
with great baseness, leaving the faithful Butler to fight 
single-handed against the tides of Swedes and Scots who 
surrounded his almost indefensible post. Already three 
Irish lieutenant-colonels, O'Neil, Patrick, and Macarthy 
were slain, with Captain-Lieutenants Grace and Brown, 
and Ensign Butler, all Irish, and many of their men. At 
last Walter Butler was pierced by a bullet, and had his 
sword-arm broken by a musket-ball, and when he fell the 
remnant of his gallant soldiers surrendered, and resistance 
was at an end. 

Meanwhile the fugitive generals fled towards Silesia, 
imd eveiywhere gave out that Butler and the Irish had 
betrayed Frankfort, by permitting the enemy to enter by 
their quarter, as it was the weakest ; and had it not been 
for a providential accident, adds an historian, Butler might 



COLONEL WALTER EUTLEF. 18o 

have been beheaded and degraded, in spiv of all his gal- 
lant services ; but next day, says one of the stormers, the 
Scottish Colonel Munro, in his history, " It was to be 
seen where tlie best service was done ; and truly had all tho 
rest (of the Imperialists) stood to it as well as the Irish 
did, we had returned with great loss, and without victory." 
He adds, there were taken fifty standards, one colonel, 
five lieutenant-colonels, " and one Irish cavalier, Butler, 
who behaved himself honourably and well." Hundreds 
of Imperialists were drowned in the Oder, and a vast 
quantity of plunder was taken. That night the King of 
Sweden gave a banquet to his principal officers and colo- 
nels, Sir John Hepburn, Munro, Lumsden, Sir John 
Banier, and others ; and when they were assembling, 
'• Cavaliers," said he, " I will not eat a morsel until I have 
seen this brave Irishman of whom we hear so much ; and 
yet," he added, to Colonel Hume, " I have that to say to 
him which he may not be pleased to hear." 

Butler's wounds rendered him incapable of exertion ; 
but on a litter of pikes being formed, he was conveyed 
into the presence of Gustavus, who gazed at him sternly, 
and asked with anger — 

" Sir, art thou the elder or the younger Butler T 

" May it please your Majesty," replied the wounded 
man, '•' I am but the younger." 

" God be praised !" said Gustavus Adolphus. " Thou 
art a brave fellow. Hadst thou been the elder, I meant 
to have run my sword through thy body ; but now my 
own physicians shall attend thee, and nothing shall 
be omitted that may procure thee happiness and 
ease." 

The action by which James Butler had kindled so much 
indignation in the breast of the usually placid Gustavus 
is now unknown ; but it must have been something very 
remarkable to excite such angry bitterness. Had Walter 
Butler been a Protestant, the king would, no doubt, have 
endeavoured to lure him into the Swedish service ; but 
the wounded Imperialist was as famous for his strict adr 
herence to the duties of the Eoman Catholic church ai 
for his gallantry in the field. 



184 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE, 

While lying thus helplessly at Frankfort, he was deeply 
stung and mortified by the rumour so wickedly and so 
industriously spread by the Imperial generals, that he had 
occasioned the loss of the town ; and he cast his honour 
under the protection of the generous Gustavus. 

" Sir," said the latter, " it is in my power to do your 
character ample justice, and in such a manner that it can 
never be controverted. I will bear full testimony to your 
faith and valour under my own hand and royal seal." 

Assuming a pen, he drew up a certificate, which set 
forth the heroism displayed by Butler in the strongest 
terms, and added, ^' that if the Imperial generals, instead 
of acting like poltroons, had performed but a fifth part 
of what this gallant Irishman had done, he (Gustavus) 
should never have been master of Frankfort, but after an 
obstinate siege alone." 

" This, sir," said the king, " is no more than is due to 
a brave and injured man j so every general in the room 
will take a pride in signing this paper with me." This 
was accordingly done by Sir John Bauier, the Scottish 
colonels, and others. 

James Butler, who was then at the coiu't of Ferdinand 
IL, at Vienna, was stung to the soul by the tidings that 
his brother had betrayed a post, and he wrote to Walter a 
letter full of the bitterest reproaches. "You have tar- 
nished the lustre of the Imperial arms, as well as the name 
of Butler," he wrote ; and Caesar's court-martial will make 
your name a bye-word of reproach." 

Walter Butler was grieved by this insolence and un- 
kindness, and hastened to show the letter to the King of 
Sweden. 

" Heed it not. Colonel Butler," said he ; " send our 
testimonial to the Emperor, and trouble yourself no more 
about it." 

Thirty thousand pounds' worth of plunder, and ten 
baggage waggons, with all the plate of the fugitives, were 
taken, and all their munitions of war ; however, they had 
buried in the earth a great quantity of arms. In 1850, a 
labourer, when digging a trench in a field near the out- 
works of old Frankfort, came upon a depot of old weapons^ 



COLONEL WALTER BUTLER. 185 

decaying, and covered withi-ust. Among them were 2000 
matchlocks, being jDart of the munition concealed by the 
garrison of Count Schomberg. As soon as his wounds- 
permitted him to travel, Walter Butler left Frankfort, 
for Gustavus was too generous to detain as a prisoner one 
whose gallant spirit was writhing under unmerited re- 
proaches. He travelled towards Silesia, and sought out 
a Colonel Behem, wiio had commanded a regiment of 
German infantry at the defence of Frankfort, and to 
whom he was fortunate enough in tracing the first of 
the slanderous reports, and challenged him to single com- 
bat on horse or foot, with sword and pistol ; but, awed 
by the justice of Butler's cause, his known skill and 
courage, and by the formidable testimonial of Gustavus^- 
A dolphus, he signed a full retractation and apology. 

Butler then went into Poland, and at his own expense- 
raised a fine regiment of cavalry, all clad in buff coats, 
with back and breast pieces, and triple-barred helmets. 
While recruiting there he daily ran the risk of being 
murdered by the Polish peasantry, who were averse to 
the Imperial service ; but he mavched as soon as his new 
levy was completed, and on his return to the Emperor s 
army took possession of Prague, the capital of Bohemia. 
This made him more than ever a favourite of the great 
Wallenstein. 

Soon after this exploit he married the Countess of 
Fondowna. 

He was at Prague when the ambitious Wallensteitt 
became false to the interests of the Empire, and fell into • 
the deadly snare prepared for him at Egra by Colonel 
James Butler and others, on whoso unscrupulous fidelity 
the Imperial court could rely. Had Walter not been a 
rigidly honourable man, he might have realized a large - 
fortune by the death of his leader, who, being always fond 
of foreign troops, wished him to return to Ireland for the • 
purpose of raising a body of infantry to cope with the- 
Scottish brigades of Gustavus. For this purpose he 
offered him money to the amount of 32,000^. ster- 
ling by bills of exchange at Hamburg, and ready cash,, 
which was lying useless at his palace of Sagan, oa 



186 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

the bauk of tlie Bober, in Prussian Silesia. But he de- 
clined the service with these remarkable words — " Poor 
old Ireland has been drained too much of her men already." 
This anecdote, says Walter Harte in his history, I learned 
at Vienna. 

The wild schemes and daring ambition of Wallensteiu 
now made him indulge in the hope of dismembering the 
great conquests of the Empire, and seating himself upon a 
new throne, to be erected by the sword in noi-thern 
Europe. This liope was crushed in 1634, wlien the great 
duke was spending the holidays of Christmas in the old 
castle of Egra in Bohemia. The garrison in this fortress 
was commanded by John Gordon, a Presbyterian, a native 
of Aberdeenshire, who was colonel of Tzertzski's regiment, 
and had once been a private soldier. Wallenstein's per- 
sonal escort consisted of 250 men of James Butler's 
Irish regiment, commanded by that officer in person. 

James Butler (without communicating the matter to 
his brother Walter), John Gordon, and Major Walter 
Lesley, son of the Laird of Balquhan in the Garioch, on 
receiving private instructions from Vienna, resolved, with- 
out scruple or remorse, on removing the ambitious general 
from the path of the emperor for ever. Butler prepared 
a grand banquet, to which he invited the generalissimo's 
attendants. Previous to the latter, Butler, who, felt some 
distrust of Lesley and Gordon, who were both Scots and 
Presbyterians, while he was a Catholic, made some 
remarks expressive of admiration for the duke. 

" You may do as you please, gentlemen, in the matter 
at issue," said Gordon ; " but death itself shall never 
alienate me from the duty and affection I bear his majesty 
the emperor." 

Thus encouraged, Butler produced a letter from Mathias 
Count Galas (who, after the siege of Mantua, obtained the 
supreme command of the Imperial army), wherein Ferdi- 
nand II. authorized them and all his officers to withdraw 
"their allegiance" from Wallenstein, for all the troops 
had taken an oath of obedience to him by the emperor's 
express order. Fully empowered ])y this document to d« 



COLONEL WALTER BUTLER. 187 

what they pleased, the three mercenaries resolved on hia 
immediate destruction. One proposed to poison him ; 
another suggested that he should be sent a prisoner to 
Vienna ; a third, that he should be slain after disposing 
of his friends at the banquet. The last was at onco 
adopted, and several were invited, among whom v^^ere 
Wallenstein's brother-in-law, Colonel Tzertzski ; Colonels 
Illo, William Kinski, and the secretary. Colonel Niemann. 
The castle was filled with soldiers on whom Gordon and 
Butler could rely. As the fatal evening drew on. Captain 
Walter Devereaux, Watchraaster Kobert Geraldine, and 
fifteen other Irishmen, entered the keep, and took posses- 
sion of a postern ; while to Captain Edmund Bourke, 
with one hundred more, was assigned the duty of keeping 
the streets quiet ; for Tzertzski's dragoons occupied the 
town, which is the capital of its circle, and was then sur- 
rounded by a triple rampart, washed on one side by the 
Egra. 

The banquet was protracted so long that at half-past ten 
the dessert was still on the table, when Colonel Gordon 
filled up a goblet of wine, and proposed the health of the 
shy and cunning John George, Elector of Saxony, the 
enemy of the emperor. 

Butler afiected astonishment, and said "he woidd 
drink to no man's prosperity who was the enemy of 
Ccesar.'" 

Pretended high words ensued, and while the unsuspect- 
ing friends of Wallenstein gazed about them in wonder 
and perplexity, the doors were flung open, and Geraldine 
and Devereaux, with their soldiers armed with drawn 
swords or partizans, rushed in. 

" Long live Ferdinand the Second 1" cried Deve- 
reaux. 

" God prosper the house of Austria," added Geraldine ; 
while Butler, Gordon, and Lesley, snatched up the 
candles, held them aloft, and drew their swords. Wallen- 
stein's friends saw that they were betrayed ; they sprang 
to their weapons, all flushed with wine and with fury at 
this treachery ; the tables were dashed over, and a deadly 



188 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

combat began. Colonel Illo was rushing to Ins sword, 
which was hanging on the wall, wiien an Irishman ran 
him through the heart. Tzertzski placed himself in a 
corner, and slew three ; for the assailants, believing him 
to be proof to mortal weapons, were afraid of him. 

" Leave me, leave me for a moment," he continued to 
ciy, while fighting with all the energy of despair ; " leave 
me to deal with Lesley and Gordon — I will fight them 
both hand to hand — after that you may kill me ; but, O, 
Gordon, what a supper is this for your friends." 

-At that instant he pierced the young Duke de Lerida 
by a mortal wound, but was almost immediately over- 
]»owered by ten strokes, and, with Kinski and Tzertzski, 
nearly hewn to pieces. Unglutted yet with blood. Captain 
Devereaux, finding his rapier broken, snatched up a 
partizan, and, followed by thirty soldiers, rushed to the 
apartments of Wallenstein ; who, having heard the uproar 
in the hall, had double-bolted his door within; and they 
assailed it with noise and great fury, while Butler stood, 
with his sword drawn, on the staircase below. Even the 
bold heart of Wallenstein was appalled by the unusual 
uproar — he leaped from his bed, and threw on a dressing- 
gown. He raised the window of the room ; but the wall 
of the tower was too high for escape, and he cried aloud — 

" Will none here assist me 1 Alas ! is no one here my 
friend r 

Upon this Devereaux knocked again, and commanded 
his soldiers to burst open the door. Five times their 
united strength failed before it, till he applied his own 
shoulder to it ; and, being a man of great power, he broke 
it to fragments, and then they beheld before them the formi- 
dable Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland and Prince of the 
Yandal Isles, standing near a table, in his shirt, pale and 
composed, but defenceless — for he had neither sword nor 
pistols ; for Schiller asserts that he was disturbed in the 
study of astrology. 

" Art thou not the betrayer of Ferdinand and the 
Empire V cried Captain Devereaux, as he charged his 
partizan j " if so, now thou must die." 



COLONEL WALTER BUTLER. 189 

"Wallenstein made no reply, but opened his arms, as if 
still more to expose his naked breast, into which the 
Irish captain thrust his weapon, and he expired without a 
groan, while all the soldiers shrunk back, as if appalled by 
the act ; yet his naked body, and the bodies of the 
Colonels Niemann, Tzertzski, Illo, and Kinski were 
carried in a cart through the streets of Egra, and tossed 
into a ditch. So perished the magnificent Wallenstein, 
the dictator of Germany ! 

James Butler and Devereaux hastened to Vienna, 
where the Emperor Ferdinand II. fastened round the 
neck of the former a valuable chain, giving, at the 
same time, his Imperial benison and a gold medal, saying, 
" Wear this, Colonel Butler, in memory of an emperor 
you have saved from ruin." He then created him a Count 
of the Holy Roman Empire, and gave him the gold key of 
the bedchamber, with extensive estates in the kingdom of 
Bohemia ; and, to crown all, by an act of abominable 
hypocrisy, he ordered three thousand masses to be said for 
repose of the murdered general's soul. Devereaux also 
received a gold chain with the gold key and a colonelcy ; 
but he left the Imperial service, and returned home to 
Ireland in 1638. 

Colonel Gordon was created a marquis of the Empire, 
Colonel-General of the Imperial army, and High Chamber- 
lain of Austria. Major Walter Lesley, who was then a 
captain of the Body Guard, was created Count Lesley, 
and Lord of Newstadt, an estate worth two hundred 
thousand florins. He died Field-Marshal, Governor of Sola- 
vonia, and Knight of the Golden Fleece. 

James Butler enjoyed his countship only one year ; for 
he died at Wirtemberg in the early part of the year 1634, 
leaving a very ample fortune, and money to found a 
college of Irish Franciscans, which still exists in the 
Bohemian capital. To Laurmayne, confessor to the em- 
peror, he left a memorial worth twenty pounds by his 
will. To the Scottish and Irish colleges at Prague he 
bequeathed 3300^. ; to the Irish students at Prague, 500^. 
among them equally ; to his sister, 1000^. ; to Walter 



190 THE CAVALIERS OP PORTTJNE. 

Devereaux whose partizan slew Wallenstein, 150^. Hi» 
widow, whom he left in easy circumstances, conveyed his 
nody into Bohemia, escorted by a troop of lancers and 
cuirassiers, and there she interred him near his own 
estates, vnth great pomp and splendour. In 1638, Thomaa 
Carve, an Irish priest, chaplain of Butler's regiment, and 
author of a minute account of these affairs,* obtained a 
commission as chaplain-general " to all the Scottish and 
Irish forces in the Imperial service." 

During the development and deTKmement of this daring 
conspiracy against the great Imperialist, his friend, Walter 
Butler, was in command at Prague, about seventy miles 
distant from the castle of Egra ; and he was filled with 
horror and dismay at the part played by his brother in 
the dark and terrible tragedy. It was, moreover, an un- 
fortunate event for him, as he never obtained any place 
at court, any military order, or rose one rank higher in 
the army from thenceforward — for, as a favourite of Wal- 
lenstein, he was an object of distrust to the emperor. 

In the same year his brother died. Walter served with 
distinguished bravery at Nordlingen in Swabia, where, on 
the 26th of August, 1634, a general engagement was the 
result of Field-Mai-shal Gustaf Home's attempt to relieve 
the town, then besieged by the Imperialists, who obtained 
a complete victory ; for the Swedish army was defeated 
with great loss, and had 4000 baggage-waggons, 80 pieces 
of cannon, and 300 stand of coloui-s taken. The Scottish 
brigades suffered severely. In particular the Highland 
regiment of Colonel Robert Munro, which by the slaughter 
of that fatal day was reduced to one company. 

By his valour a.nd example Walter Butler, at the head 
of his regiment, " decided the victory in favour of the 
Imperialists." To quote Harte — " He stood firm, with- 
out losing one inch of ground, for three-and-twenty hours, 
during a continual fire, and though 16,000 soldiers weir 
killed in that engagement." 

Soon after this great battle he died of a severe illness 
The descendants of his brother distinguished themselvei* 

* Thomas Carve (Tipperarlensis), /<i«erantt«», 12mo. 3639-1641. 



COLONEL WALTER BUTLER. 191 

repeatedly in the future wars of the grasping House of 
Austria, particularly in those waged against Frederick 
the Great, King of Prussia ; and there is now living in 
Bohemia an old nobleman named Baron Butler, who 
boasts of being the fourth in descent from James Butler 
of Ormond, one of the slayers of the great Duke of Fried- 
land. 



192 THE CATALIEBS OF FOBIUS& 



GOVERNOR OF VIENNA AND BERLIN. 



Henry James William Clarke, Due de Feltre, Minister 
of War under the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, and 
afterwards under the Bourbons, was born on the 17th 
October, 17G5, at Landrecies, a town of France, situate on 
the Sambre, westward of Maubeuge, and about one 
hundred miles from Paris. 

His father belonged to one of the many exiled Irish 
families who followed to France the abdicated James 
VII. of Scotland, and II. of England ; and after serving 
King Louis as a subaltern officer, died at an early age on 
obtaining the rank of colonel, leaving his son, the future 
general, an orphan, to the care of his uncle, Colonel Shee, 
who was then " Secretaire des Commandement du Due 
d'Orl^ans," and afterwards Prefect of Strasbourg, and a 
peer of France. It is strange how well fortune favoured 
all these Irish exiles in the various lands of their 
adoption. 

By Colonel Shee, Henry Clarke was well and carefully 
reared, as he intended him for the service of Louis XVI. 
Tlius, on the 17th of September, 1781, he entered the 
Military School at Paris as a cadet ; and after going 
through a brief curriculum, left it on the 11th of No- 
vember, 1782, to join the regiment of the Due de Berwick 
as a sub-lieutenant. Wishing to join the cavalry, on the 
5th of September, 1784, he was appointed cornet of 
hussars, with the rank of captain in the regiment of the 
olonel-general of this branch of the service. 

On the 11th of July, 1790, he obtained a captaincy of 
di-agoons, and in the same year received leave of absence 



MARSHAL CLARKE. 195 

to visit Great Britain, as a gentleman in the suite of the 
ambassador. 

It was to the friendship and patronage of the Duke of 
Orleans that Clarke owed these favours, and generally, his 
rapid advancement in the army ; and it was to this prince 
that the hussar regiment of the colonel-general belongedy 
according to a custom of the old regime. 

On his return to France, Clarke applied immediately 
for active service, and on the 5th of February, 1792, was 
appointed a cajDtain of the first class, and soon after be 
attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel of cavalry. 

He remained in command of his regiment during all 
the horrors of the Revolution ; and, at its head, served in 
the two campaigns which followed the attack on the 
Tuileries, the deposition of the king, and the murders of 
1792. In September he assisted very materially at the 
capture of Spire, the ci-devant capital of a bishopric in 
the palatinate of the Rhine, along the upper circle of 
which Custine had spread his brilliant conquests. 

The French attacked the Austrians, who w^ere in order 
oi battle in front of the city. They were outflanked, and 
driven back ; the gates were cut down by axes, or blown 
to pieces by cannon, and the republicans stormed the 
place, taking 3000 prisoners, with a vast train of cannon 
and mortars. Clarke bore a conspicuous part as an active 
cavalry officer in all the subsequent operations of the 
French army, including the capture of Worms, with all 
its stores, and of Mentz, before which the army arrived on 
the 19th of October, after forced marches, performed amid 
torrents of rain ; and the taking of Frankfort, which was 
ransomed from destruction and pillage on the payment of 
500,000 florins. 

On the 17th of March, after the rout ofBingen, he 
defended the passage of the Nahe, a German stream, 
which falls into the Rhine near the former place, and 
there he was of signal service to the retreating troops. 
He was present at the affair of Horcheim, which was 
afterwards annexed to France, and the capture of Landau, 
on the 17th of May. His distinguished bravery on these 
occasions obtained him the rank of General of Brigade, 

o 



194 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

provisionally, the commission of wliich he received on the 
field of battle. He then received the command of three 
regiments of dragoons, which formed the advanced guard 
of the army of the Rhine. 

Soon afterwards we find him exercising in this army 
the functions of Chof d'Etat-Major General ; but on the 
12th of October, 1793, the Commissioners of the National 
Convention, in virtue of a most unjust decree of that 
tyrannical assembly, deprived him of his rank, as he hap- 
pened to be at that time on their secret list of the sus- 
pected. 

He received intelligence of this on the very evening 
before the Austrians stormed the French lines at Weis- 
sembourg, on the Lower Rhine, and he retired at once to 
Alsace, where he was confined on a species of parole ; nor 
did he recover his military rank and position until after 
the downfall and death of the cruel and infamous Robe- 
spierre. 

Under the protection of M. Camot, who was then 
Minister of Public Safety, Clarke was placed at the head 
of a committee of military topography; and in this ser- 
vice he exhibited the greatest talent as a director and 
instructor, and spared no pains to fulfil the duties imposed 
upon him. The restless and suspicious Directory, in thus 
maintaining M. Carnot at the head of their afiairs as 
minister, caused also the retention of Clarke, whose 
importance seemed to increase with that of his patron. 

He was confirmed a General of Brigade in March, 
1795 ; and on his ai)pointment to the rank of General of 
Division, on the 17th of September, in the same year, our 
Irish exile could scarcely believe that fate had higher or 
more brilliant destinies in store for him ; but now his 
talents as a diplomatist were about to be put in requisi- 
tioji. This was when the astonishing sucdesses of Napo- 
leon in Italy had alarmed the Directory, who dispatched 
Clarke to Vienna, entrusting to him the difiicult mission 
of preparing the terms of the projected peace between 
Rejmblican France and the Imperial Coui-t; but, as he 
was adverse to the wishes of the Directory, and inimical 



MARSHAL CLARKE. 195 

to the task, his arrangements proved unfortunately dis- 
advantageous to the French. 

After this he visited the army of Italy, the General-in- 
Chief of which, bemg influenced by the Directory, placed 
him in a subordinate position, alike repugnant to his love 
of freedom and authority. As simple plenipotentiary, 
Clarke, after traversing Germany, showed himself at 
Vienna to be the political confidant of the powerful 
Directory, and, above all, of M. Carnot. 

In the minute instructions given to General Clarke by 
the French Government we are enabled to trace him in 
his route, which lay through Piedmont, Milan, Medina. 
Bologna, and Yenice ; and by the Directory he — :more 
than all their other diplomatic agents — was specially re- 
commended to observe narrowly the secret purposes of 
the different great personages who held important posi- 
tions at the court of Vienna. 

" Your journey, M. Clarke," said the minister De la 
Croix, in a letter written on the 17th November, 1796, 
" will be sufficiently useful when you have no longer any- 
thing to know or to discover for the profit of the Republic 
or the cause of humanity." But it was generally believed 
— nay, it was openly asserted in Paris — that the mission 
of Clarke to Yienna was all a riLse, and was meant merely 
to conceal some artful plot woven by the Directory 
against Napoleon Bonaparte, before whose power and 
popularity they were beginning to tremble. 

However, the Directory really wished a peace, and pro- 
visionally demanded an armistice ; but Bonaparte, who 
had no desire to see a general peace in Europe, and, least 
of all, one formed by any person save himself, by his 
formidable interference and potent influence, caused the 
negotiations entirely to fail. We are enabled to perceive 
how the Directory, in their overtures for peace, above 
everything else counted on those territories which they 
<}ould ofler in exchange for Luxembourg and other pro- 
vinces which they had annexed to France. This system 
of compensation admitted of alterations, which their 
envoy could vary at his pleasure, on j^erceiving the effect 
o 2 



196 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

produced by each oifer on the various members cf the 
Austrian cabinet. 

In the armistice extended to the two armies they 
wished the terms to be similar to those given by their 
general, Napoleon Bonaparte, when besieging Mantua, 
viz.: — That they should be supplied daily with ammuni- 
tion and provisions, according to their numerical strength. 
But Bonaparte declared these terms absurd ; and ex- 
plained to them that the suspension of arms alone gave to 
France the prospect of greater advantages than could 
accrue from terms based on those framed at Mantua. But 
the commands of the Directory were imperative ; and the 
cabinet of Vienna, on receiving their overtures, had 
already sent the Baron Vincent to Vicenza, to confer 
with General Clarke, who repelled with all his energy 
the advice and interference of Bonaparte ; but the latter, 
on being supported by Barras against him, as one trusted 
by Carnot, said plainly to Clarke, " Si vous etes venu ici 
pour faire ma volonte, je vous verrai avec plaisir ; si c'est 
le contraire vous pouvez retourner d'ou vous etes venu." 

By this language he made Clarke feel that his patron, 
Carnot, was not secure in office, and that he must prepare 
other supporters for himself. Indeed, some rumour of 
this nature had reached him before. The result of these 
disagreements between Clarke and Napoleon caused the 
former to omit all praise of the latter in public communi- 
cations to the government at Paris ; but, in the first re- 
port of Clarke to the minister De la Croix, dated 7th 
December, 1796, we find him exculpating Bonaparte of 
all blame for the awful ravages and atrocities committed 
by his troops in Italy. 

Bonaparte succeeded in postponing the conferences at 
Vicenza until the 3rd January, 1797 j and so many de- 
spatches passed to and fro between the Directory, Carnot, 
and Clarke, that the Baron Vincent lost patience, and 
declared, that if France had any further communications 
to make, they must in future be addressed, not to him. 
but to Gherardini, the Austrian minister at Turin. 
Bonaparte took care that this resolution of the baron 
should bo effectual Clarke was several times at Turin 



MARSHAL CLARKE. 197 

and Lombardy, negotiating ; and after happily completing 
a friendly arrangement with his general, was left without 
other duties to fulfil, than to complete, with the Tied- 
montese court, those amicable treaties which were termi* 
nated by an alliance with France on the 5th April, 
1797. 

After this, he brought before the Directory a series of 
complaints against certain generals and commissaries ot 
tihe French army in Italy. With the substance of the 
charges against these officers he had been furnished by 
Bonaparte ; and the result was, that many of them were 
displaced and recalled to France. 

The complaints or charges furnished to Clarke were 
sometimes far from correct; but Bonaparte, by means 
of the envoy, wished to rid his army of those devastators 
and peculators, without drawing upon himself their last- 
ing and personal hostility. To the honour of Clarke, it 
must be confessed that his dislike for those who had been 
guilty of mal-demeanour in Italy was at least sincere; 
and in this he proved himself worthy to be the friend of 
Carnot. 

He found himself again at Turin during the discussion 
which ensued concerning the preliminaries of Leoben. 
Bonaparte, who had neither desire nor authority to con- 
clude anything that resembled a peace, affected to wish 
much for the presence of Clarke as a plenipotentiary, 
while he secretly contrived such means to delay his jour- 
ney, that it was impossible he could arrive in time. Thus 
ten days passed, and on the 17th of April Clarke had not 
appeared, so Bonaparte signed the articles alone ; and on 
the 6th of the following month, the Directory invested 
them both with full power to sign the final treaty. 

Two negotiators, the Marquis di Gallo and Meerteldt, 
had been appointed by Austria to meet them ; but at the 
very commencement of their proceedings the proud and 
haughty spirits of Bonaparte and Gallo domineered over 
their colleagues so completely, that they became as mere 
machines in their hands. Clarke had, nevertheless, occa- 
sionally sole charge of the negotiations at TJdina, a town 
iu Friuli, -^rhere they had many meetings concerning the 



198 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

entangled affairs of France and Austria; but this was 
only when the tergiversations of the latter, who wished to 
recommence the war, were embarrassing the conferences, 
which, according to the caustic expression of Bonaparte, 
'•' were nothing more than a series of pleasantries." 

In the midst of these incertitudes and delays, a new 
revolution took place at Paris, on the 4th September, 
1797, when the legislative was entirely absorbed by the 
executive power, and when the famous pamphlet of 
Bailleul, which provoked such a violent debate in the 
Council of Five Hundred, was the tocsin of alarm. On 
this day — the 18th Fructidor — Clarke was declared a 
" creature of Carnot ;" and, as such, was deprived of all 
power. Thus Bonaparte was left sole plenipotentiary of 
the Republic, and had the honour of signing alone the 
famous treaty of Campo Formio, which secured a peace 
between France and the Emperor Francis II., and which 
took its name from the place of meeting — a castle of 
maritime Austria, situated on a hill in the province of 
'Friuli. It was signed on the 17th October, and was un- 
doubtedly more glorious for France than the treaty which 
General Clarke had prepared for the same purpose in 
November, 1796. But Bonaparte behaved with great 
generosity towards his fallen colleague : he defended him 
against the virulence of the Parisian pamphleteers and 
journalists, protected him while in Italy, and employed 
him about his staff and jjerson in many ways. " Could 
he do less to the star which he had so completely made 
his satellite T exclaims a French writer. 

The brilliant reception which awaited Bonaparte on his 
triumphant return to France, and still more, the high en- 
thusiasm kindled by his departure for Egypt, threw Clarke 
completely into the shade ; and he was almost forgotten 
by the volatile Parisians during two years that he liveil 
in retirement. 

M. Xavier Audoin, son-in-law of Pache, succeeded 
Clarke as chief of the Bureau Topographique et Militaire 
at tlie Directory. The Parisian journals accused the 
general of having enjoyed the confidence of Carnot too 
much, and to be too deeply attached to the House oi 



MARSHAL CLARKE. 199 

Orleans, to %yliicli lie and his family were indebted for 
much of their good fortune in France. 

The Biihlhi Journal of the 7th October, 1797, contains 
a paragraph to the effect that it was known that Clarke 
had been " for forty hours, during the hist w^eek," in that 
city, " that he had held conferences with the leaders of 
the United Irishmen, and having obtained his information 
and given his directions, had embarked in a fishing smack 
from Killinbay, on Sunday morning last. That he could 
have no other purpose than the arrangement of a French 
invasion we have no doubt/' adds the editor, '• and when 
our readers have learned that there is- strong ground 
to believe that he has been for some time past in the 
north of Ireland, they will naturally join in our opinion. 
Our readers will recollect that this General Clarke was 
announced in the French papers to have left the Italian 
army some time since on his way to Vienna to negotiate 
Avith the emperor — there has been 7io negotiation at 
Vienna — the treaty is under discussion at Udina — so that 
this journey has obviously been fabricated to conceal his 
real destination." 

But, notwithstanding all these details, there is no solid 
]:)roof for believing that General Clarke ever visited the 
land of his forefathers on this secret duty. 

He ought, perhaps, to have followed Napoleon, even as 
a volunteer, to the banks of the iTile ; but being of a 
proud and jealous spirit, he was unfortunately without 
this feeling of devotion to his new protector. Bonaparte 
appeared to feel this ; for on his return from his distant 
and dangerous expedition, and finding himself master of 
the government, by the 18th Brmnaire (9th Novem- 
ber, 1799), he seemed to look coldly on the general at 
times. 

Clarke now neglected nothing that might sei-ve to re- 
instate him in the good graces of the First Consul, who, 
in September, 1800, intrusted him finally with the charge 
of the negotiations at Luneviile, and soon after with the 
military command of that large city, which lies in the de- 
par tement of the Meurthe. But Clarke felt that these 
two posts were alike insignificant and unworthy one of hi^ 



200 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

talent and enterprise; for the recent victories in Germany 
and Italy had greatly simplified his duties as a negotiator, 
and the little that remained Bonaparte directed in Paris. 
When the arrangements were completed, to the infinite 
annoyance of Clarke, he sent his brother Joseph to sign 
them. 

Clarke had meanwhile been preparing for the departure 
of a body of Russian officers who were prisoners of war 
at Lisle ; and the kindness with which he did so, caused 
the Emperor Paul I. to present him with a magnificent 
«word, and other marks of his approbation. 

Such is the weakness of the human heart, that these 
honours inflated Clarke so much, that for a time he ap- 
peared to feel himself equal to the First Consul, and 
indeed he was rash enough, and unwise enough, to 
say so. 

Coming early one evening to the opera, he entered the 
box usually appropriated to Napoleon, and assumed that 
august person's place in the front seat. When the First 
Consul came, Clarke had the bad taste to sit still during 
the performance, and leave to his master the second 
place ! 

These mistakes of temper, united to his punctilious spirit, 
in affairs of state, and love of diplomatic work, caused 
the French government to give him the office of minister 
of France at Florence, that he might be away from Paris 
and near the young Duke of Parma, who' wished to be 
named King of all Italy ; but this post, say the Me- 
moirs of St. Helena, proved exceedingly distasteful to 
him. 

Clarke's talent — a most useful, if not brilliant one— - 
consisted in an amazing facility for keeping on the best 
possible terms with all the parties among whom he was 
cast. The secret of his influence with Bonaparte appears 
to have been, a sentiment of profound gratitude in the 
latter for the high praise bestowed by Clarke in his 
^' Secret Report" to the Directory on the conduct of the 
young general in Italy. This document afterwards fell 
into the hands of the First Consul, who never forgot its 
contents. 



MARSHAL CLARKE. 201 

Clarke, tired of his residence in Florence, wrote letter 
after letter, demanding his recal to Paris, terming his 
embassy a species of exile ; and Bonaparte, believing that 
his punishment was sufficiently severe, at last gave him 
leave to return ; but desired him to travel by the way of 
Lisle (a fortified city in the departement of the north), to 
the camp at Boulogne. In Belgium he gave him the 
title of Councillor of State, and created for him two places 
in the cabinet — one as secretary for the marine, and the 
other for the war. 

Arrived at the camp of Boulogne, one of the eailiest mat- 
ters entrusted to the general was the proposed establishment 
of Irish brigades, to co-operate in the projected invasion of 
Britain ; and these corps Clarke believed might be re- 
cruited among the Irishmen who were prisoners of war 
in France. While this project was on the tapis, he had 
many interviews with the famous Theobald Wolfe Tone, 
who had been appointed by the Directory chef-de-brigade, 
and afterwards adjutant-general ; and with Lazarus 
Hoche, 3 frank, resolute, and zealous republican, who, 
from beinj; ?. stable-boy and private of the French guards, 
raised himseli te one of the highest positions in the 
army of France. Ir 1792, he was a corporal; in 1793, 
he was a general, coix:f'.anding the army of the Moselle ; 
and in the two subsequent years he subdued La 
Vendee. 

Tone wa-s introduced to Hoche by Clarke, and in his 
Memoirs he details the questions they asked him con- 
cerning the state of Ireland ; where a landing might be 
effected ; where provisions might be relied on, particu- 
larly bread ; whether French auxiliaries might count on 
being able to form an Irish Provisional Government, 
either of the Catholic Committee, or of the chiefs of the 
Irish patriots'? On these subjects Tone had many a long 
and anxious conference with his countryman Clarke, and 
with Hoche. 

After a long intei'view with Hoche, in the cabinet of 
Fleury one day, Wolfe Tone was asked, what form of 
government the Irish would adopt, in the event of their 
successfully encountering the British troops ? 



202 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUA'E. 

" I was going to answer him with great earnestness^* 
says Tone, in his interesting Memoirs, " when GenerA 
Clarke entered, to request that we would come to dinner 
with Citizen Carnot. We accordingly adjourned the 
conversation to the apartment of the President, where we 
f(3und Carnot, and one or two more. Hoche, after some 
time, took me aside, and repeated his question. I replied, 
' Most decidedly a republic." He asked again, ' Are you 
Buref I said, * As sure as I can be of anything. I know 

nobody in Ireland who thinks of any other system .' 

Camot joined us here, with a pocket-map of Ireland, and 
the conversation between Clarke, Hoche, and him becanje 
pretty general, every one else having left the room. I 
said scarcely anything, as I wished to listen. Hoche re- 
lated to Carnot the substance of what passed between 
iiim and me. When he mentioned his anxiety as to 
bread, Carnot laughed and said, ' There is plenty of beef 
in Ireland — if you cannot get bread, you must eat beef* 
I told him I hoped they would find both j addix g, that 
within twenty yeai*s Ireland had become Zj {r?X'2.t corn 
country, so that at present it made a cons'-loi'able article 
in her exports." — Vol. ii. pp. 14—18. 

The patience of Wolfe Tone was ^.orely tried by many 
and unnecessary delays ; and, after 'U, the hopes of the 
Irish exiles ended only in mustering a regiment of their 
countrymen, which, instead of embarking for Ireland, 
marched to the invasion of Spain, under the unfortunate 
Colonel Lewis Lacy, the son of a race of hereditary Irish 
soldiers, as related elsewhere. 

In the year following his double appointment as 
minister for the war and marine, Clarke made the Ger- 
man campaign on the staff of Bonapai-te, and was i>resent 
at the capture of the free city of Ulm, in the Swabian 
circle, on the 17th October, 1805, and at other operations, 
which drove the army of the Archduke Ferdinand across 
the Danube ; and, on the capture of Vienna by the corps 
of the brave Mumt and Lannes, he Avas named governor 
of the city and also of Upper and I,ower Austria, Ca- 
rinthia, Styria, Friuli, Trieste, (fee. His moderation and 
justice in this high command elevated him ainona; the 



MARSHAL CLAKKE. 203 

victors, and won him the love and esteem of the van- 
quished. He also received the cordon of Grand Officer 
of the Legion of Honour, and soon after was ordered to 
define the line of .demarcation between Brisgau, in the 
kingdom of Wirtemberg, and the Grand Duchy of Baden, 

Two months were spent by him in conferences and 
diplomacy. From the 9th to the 20th of July, 1806, he 
was engaged with the Russian plenipotentiary, and their 
interviews were terminated by the wonderful treaty 
v^hich opened and ceded to France, Cattaro, a Venetian 
territory in Dalmatia, with its capital, harbour, and cita- 
del ; and which maintained Gustavus IV. in possession 
of the ancient Duchy of Pomerania, and left to be 
achieved, at an early period, the junction of Sicily to 
the kingdom of Murat — the whole being arranged by 
them, without condescending to ask the advice of Great 
Britain, whicli was then the faithful ally of Prussia. 
This treaty was never ratified by the Emperor Alexander. 
The other conferences took place between Clarke and 
Lord Yarmouth, to whom Charles Fox added the Scot- 
tish Earl of Lauderdale ; while, to assist Clarke, the 
French government added Jean Baptiste Champagny, 
the Due de Cadore, who was only a spectator of the nego- 
tiations, whicli were without result, and are of no conse- 
quence to the reader ; but Clarke, who had displayed his 
usual acuteness, tact, and skill in all his meetings with 
the Lords Yarmouth and Lauderdale, was not a little 
proud of having prevailed upon M. D'Oubril to sign cer- 
tain clauses he submitted to him. 

Kussia, however, was in no haste to evacuate Cattaro, 
and the Emperor Alexander began to augment his army ; 
so from September, 1800, it became evident that if France 
declared war against Prussia, she would have to encounter 
Kussia also. In the first meeting concerning these afiairs 
Clarke said, "that the convention recently concluded 
with Russia v/as for France equivalent to a victory ; and 
that henceforward his master, the Emperor Napoleon, 
had the right of proposing articles more advantageous 
than those he had lately made.*' He qualified the terms 
of the treaty which he wished them to adopt, and in par- 



204 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

ticular Vuti possedetis ; of vague conversations on tho 
politics of Rome, he said that Bonaparte had never 
adopted this uti possedetis for a basis, without which 
Moravia, Styria, and Carniola would have remained still 
in his hands. , 

Similar language, encumbered by diplomatic techni- | 
<;alities, was applied to the two envoys of Fox, but failed 
to succeed with them, as they were resolved not to depart 
in a single instance from the basis of the position taken 
before by the envoy of Prince Talleyrand. The death of 
■Charles Fox put an end to all the hopes of peace, although 
Lauderdale and Champagny did not despair of procuring 
it until the 6th of October ; but by this time Clarke had 
set out for Germany, having accompanied Napoleon to 
the Prussian campaign. After the two battles of the 
14rth October, he was named Governor of Erfurt, a for- 
tified city on the Gera, and capital of the Elector of 
Mentz. It was then crowded with Prussian prisoners, j 
and with sick and wounded Frenchmen. I 

For having been more in the palaces than in the camps I 
of Bonaparte, and being, moreover, of foreign blood, i 
- Clarke was reproached with being more of a diplomatist j 
than a soldier by those who were envious of the favour \ 
shown him by the Emperor. While at Erfurt he caused : 
the Saxon grenadiers of Hiindt to take arms, and sup- ; 
plied them with ammunition, colours, and several pieces j 
' of cannon. 

On the 27th Napoleon summoned him to Berlin, and 
. appointed him governor, saying : — 

" I wish that in the same year you should have under 
your orders the capitals of two monarchies we liave con- 
quered — Prussia and Austria." 

"Thus Clarke, the inevitable Clarke, was appointed 
•Governor of Berlin," says De Bourienne, " and under his 
administration the wretched inhabitants, who could not 
flee, were overwhelmed by every species of impost and 
oppression. As in the execution of every measure there 
operated the most servile compliance with the orders of 
Napoleon, so the name of Clarke is held in detestation 
throughout Prussia." 



MARSHAL CLARKE. 205 

The measures of Clarke, as Governor of Berlin, were 
doubtless mortifying, ruinous, and often sanguinary ; 
but then it must be remembered that he was comjjelled 
to enforce the iron will, and obey the stern orders, of his 
inflexible master ; though it must be acknowledged that 
it would have been more noble in him to have softened 
them to the vanquished Prussians. The military contri- 
butions were rigorously levied, and those were not the 
least of the severities exercised upon the people of Berlin. 
Offences were uselessly created, and then barbarously 
judged of by a military commission. 

The punishment of the unfortunate Burgomaster of 
Ciritz is forgotten amid the many barbarous executions 
•-^t which Prussia became the theatre, and against which 
hei people dared not protest. When the king, Frederick 
William, found himself seated with Clarke at the table of 
Louis XYIII. in 1815, he could not refrain from bitterly 
reproaching Clarke with what he termed "the useless 
murder of the father of a family." 

" Sire," responded Clarke, " it was an unfortunate 
error." 

" An error, monsieur ?" reiterated the king, striking 
his hand upon the table ; " an error — it was a crime !" 

Withal, it must be acknowledged that Clarke, in the 
high place he occupied, fulfilled, in every way, the trust 
reposed in him by Napoleon ; and that during his com- 
mand at Berlin, which occupied a year, he gave ample 
proof of his inflexible j)robity ; and we may perhaps 
believe, that many of the accusations made against him 
were the echoes of those comj^laints which are naturally 
raised by the vanquished against the troops of the victor. 
Doubtless he would have received greater praise had he 
striven to please others more, and his master less. By 
the ofliciai collections of Schoell, we are informed that 
Vendomme one day wished to appropriate to himself the 
magnificent furniture in the palace of Potsdam, where he 
resided ; but that Clarke, by his determined intervention, 
forced him to relinquish the idea. 

Clarke was again named minister of war, vice Marshal 
Berthier, Duke of Neufchatel and Prince of Wagram* 



206 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTITKE. 

He acquitted himself with great credit during his admi- 
nistration, which was prolonged without interruption for 
several years ; but it was marked by two remarkable 
episodes — the descent upon Walcheren in 1809, and the 
conspiracy of Mallet in 1812. But we ought previously 
to have mentioned that in 1808 Clarke had been enno- 
bled by the title of Count Hunebourg, and in 1809 he 
was created Due de Feltre, from a town in Venetian 
Lombardy. 

The descent of the British upon "Walcheren took 
■Olarke by surprise ; but seconded by Bernadotte and 
Fouche he collected, in less than five weeks, an army of 
100,000 men, near the mouths of the Scheldt, to watch 
their operations ; but the swamps of South Beveland, 
and the Walcheren fever, proved more deadly to the 
British troops than the bayonets of France. 

When Napoleon was absent on his disastrous Russian 
campaign, the unfortunate disturbance, or rather wild 
enterprise of the republican General Mallet, with his 
■compatriots Guidal and Lahoire, placed Paris for some 
hours in the hands of an armed mob. The coolness and 
presence of mind exhibited by Clarke during this mo- 
mentous crisis is above all common praise. Mallet forged 
«,n account of Bonaparte's death ; and on obtaining 
twelve hundred men from the 10th cohort of the National 
Ouard, made prisoners M. Pasquer and Savary, the Duke 
of Rovigo, and assailing General Hullin, Commandant of 
Paris, in his quarters, shot him through the head b}'^ a 
pistol-ball. Mallet led his party to seize Clarke as 
minister of war ; but the plot was soon discovered, and 
Mallet was captured and disarmed. This finished his 
proposed reassertion of the Republic, and fourteen of his 
followers were put to death, while Clarke ordered the 
arrest of many othei-s upon very slight suspicions. He 
then dispatched to Bonaparte a report, which displayed 
his own vigilance and acuteness in escaping the snare 
into which General Hullin, Colonel Soulier, Savary, and 
Pasquer had fallen so easily. 

The excessive zeal of Clarke began to relax about the 
end of 1813, although his language always continued th« 



MAESIIAL CLArvKE. 207 

same ; tlius, when Napoleon, acting under tlie pressure 
of his disasters in Russia, proposed to make a ])eace, and 
yield up some of his conquests, the Due de Feltre, know- 
ing how to touch one of the sensitive chords in liis breast, 
said, "that he would consider the Emperor dishonoured 
if he consented to abandon the smallest village which hai 
been united to the Empire by a senatorial decree !" 

" What a fine thing it is to talk !" added old Bou- 
rienne. 

Clarke's opinion, however, prevailed with Napoleon, 
and the war, so fatal to him, continued ; though without 
doubt, in his secret soul, he had begun to see the exact 
and perilous position of the Emperor. Before the startling 
events of March, 1814, when the allies advanced upon 
Paris, and before the communications of Joseph had 
forced the determination of the Assembly, the acute 
Clarke had advised, very decidedly, the departure of 
Maria Louisa, who set out at once for Blois. The osten- 
tatious language with which he accompanied this advice 
failed to deceive any one ; but in spite of his efforts it 
was singularly cold and discouraging. 

He commenced his oration by a vivid picture of the 
conflicting state of parties, and of the state of Paris and 
its environs ; and his enemies accused him not only of 
exaggerating the dangers which menaced the capital, bub 
of concealing its actual resources ; but one fact is evident, 
Clarke was clearly and honestly of opinion that Paris was 
indefensible, and that to resist would be to destroy it 1 
It is said that Bonaparte had a contrary opinion, though 
it was not then publicly avowed. 

When once Maria Louisa had left Paris, Clarke, fore- 
seeing its certain capitulation, did not take the necessary 
measures either to defend it or to check the progress of 
the allies. For three days he did not open the arsenals 
to the Parisians, nor would he allow them to transport 
the cannon from the Hotel des Invalides, and the Fcole 
Militaire to the heights about the city ; finally he clubbed 
all the troops of the line al)out Montmartre. '* Posterity,'* 
*ays a recent writer, " will decide if these measures were 
correct." 



208 THE OAVALIEKS OF FORTUNE. 

Then followed the battle of Paris ; Marshal Marmoiit's 
return within its walls ; the nights of the 30th and 31st 
of March ; the capitulation ; the entiy of the allies, 
and the strange enthusiasm with which the vacilla- 
ting population received them. Napoleon was dethroned 
by a decree of the Senate, and a Provisional Govern- 
ment was formed ; and changing, like many others, in 
that time of change, to this new government, Clarke sent 
in his formal adhesion on the 8th of April, about one vjeek 
after Paris was taken. 

On the 4th of the following June he was created, by 
Louis XVIII., a peer of France. 

When Marshal Soult retired from office, King Louis 
appointed Clarke Minister of War — the same post he had 
held under the Emperor, who was then maturing plans 
of new operations in the little isle of Elba. 

It was tauntingly said of Clarke that it was his destiny 
and misfortune to see the affairs of both Bonaparte a,nd 
the Bourbons go to wreck, while entrusted to his care. 

The Memoirs of St. Helena assure us that Clarke, 
during the events of the Hundred Days, wished to retake 
service under the Emperor Napoleon ! If so, how differ- 
ent was his conduct from the faith that characterized 
Ney, Cambronne, and Macdonald ! A rumour of this, 
in 1815, led to the immediate departure of Clarke for 
Ghent, where, at the fugitive court of Louis XVI 1 1., he 
exercised his functions as Minit^ter of War; and from 
thence, some time after, he travelled to London, charged 
with a mission from the king to the Prince Regent,* 
afterwards George IV. 

During the time the allied armies occupied Paris, 
Clarke had a remarkable interview with the King of 
Prussia. On this occasion he was accompanied by M. de 
Bourienne and Marshal Berthier. They remained for 
some time in the saloon, before his Prussian Majesty 
appeared from his closet, and when he did so, the em- 
barrassment of his manner, and the cloudy severity of his 
countenance, was apparent to the thrcie visitors. 

" Marahal," said Jie to Berthier, " I should have pre^ 
ferred receiving you as a peaceful visitor at Berlin ; but 



MARSHAL CLARKE. 209 

war has its successes, as well as its reverses. Your troops 
are brave and ably led ; but you cannot oppose numbers, 
and Europe is armed against the Emperor ; patience has 
its limits. You have passed no little time, marshal, in 
making war on Germany, and I have great pleasure in 
saying to you that I shall never forget your conduct, your 
justice, and moderation in those seasons of misfortune. 

Marshal Berthier, who deserved this eulogium, made a 
suitable reply ; after which the King of Prussia turned 
sternly to the Due de Feltre, saying, — 

" As for you^ General Clarke, I cannot say the same of 
your conduct as of the marshal's. The inhabitants of 
Berlin will long remenber your government. You abused 
victory strangely, and carried to an extreme measures of 
rigour and vexation. If I have an advice to give you, it 
is — never sliow your face in Prussia.'^ 

" Clarke was so overwhelmed by this reception from a 
crowned head," says M. de Bourienne, " that Berthier and 
myself, each taking an arm, were absolutely obliged to 
support him down the grand stair." 

On returning to King Louis, at Ghent, he resumed his 
duties of Minister for the War Department ; and as- 
suredly his task was both a severe and a difficult one. 

He had to arrange the disbanding of the Imperial and 
the re-organization of a Royal army ; he had to examine 
and decide upon the various claims presented by hundrechi 
of soldiers ; he had to satisfy the demands of two thou- 
sand officers who adhered to the king, and to send them 
into the interior ; he had to classify nine thousand officers 
of the disbanded army ; to arrange for the pay of six 
thousand others who were reformed — that is, continued 
on pay, but without being regimented : he had to 
examine six thousand claims for arrears of pay and 
pensions, claims that could admit of no delay, and which 
amounted to forty-six millions of francs ; he had to 
organize the Boyal Garde du Corp ; to reconstitute the 
gendarmerie ; to provide for the maintenance of th* 
•allied armies of occupation ; and all this he had to 
do, amid obstacles, disorders, and complexities without 
example. 



210 THE CAVALIERS OP F0RTU2fE. 

Such was the mighty mass of labour submitted to the 
care of Clarke ; and of this herculean task he nobly and 
ably acquitted himself in leas than two years. 

All impartial writers unite in exculpating him from 
the angiy and unjust accusation of peculating with the 
enormous sums which were required and absorbed by the 
reorganization of the French army. But he was severely 
handled by military men for instituting those tribunals 
styled Les Cours Frevotales. 

In June, 1815, Clarke was with Louis XVIII. at 
Arnouville, and while there saved his friend, rran9ois 
Marquis de LagranQ;e, a lieutenant-general who in 1813 
commanded the 3rd Regiment of Gardes d'Honneur, from 
great danger, if not from death. The marquis had been 
accused of offering his services to Napoleon, and hastily 
arrived at Arnou\'ille with his son, on the 30th June. 
As he -was about to wait upon Louis he was assailed by 
several soldiers, in whose hearts the love of Napoleon was 
fitrong. They called him a traitor, and tore away his 
sword, cross, and epaulettes. On becoming aware of these 
outrages, Clarke sent two influential officers to. repress 
the tumult, and himself led the marquis to Louis XVIII., 
who appointed him captain of the Black Musketeers. 

The zeal which Clarke now employed in the cause of 
the house of Bourbon was ultimately the means of liis 
downfall. Louis XVIII.. who each day conceded more 
and more to the enemies of his dynasty, after bestowing 
upon Clarke the baton of a Marshal of France, displaced 
him from office, and appointed Gouvin St. Cyr in his 
room. 

We know that after his dismissal all was changed in 
the department of the Minister of War. 

The i:>osition in which Clarke found himself during the 
last years of his stirring, active, and useful life was very 
painful and humiliating, especially to one of so proud a 
spii'it as his. Some of the more favoured personages who 
crowded the court of Louis XVIII., could not behold 
with a favourable eye this foreigner, who had been the 
War Minister of the great Napoleon, a confidant of his, 
and his co-operator in a thousand schemes of conquest ; on- 



MAESHAL CL\KKE. 211 

the otlier hand, his old comrades of the Impeidal army 
affected to see in CLirke a deserter, a transferer of his 
allegiance, and, indeed, all but a traitor. Those whose 
base extortions he had repressed in other times now joined 
their clamours against him, and the Royalists cared not 
to say a word in his defence. 

Thus, at the end of his career, he was unjustly despised 
alike for his talents and virtues, as for his mistakes and 
weaknesses — for the good he had done as well as for evil. 
Clarke now found himself isolated and abandoned, and 
the conviction of this, together with the coldness with 
whioh he was treated, sank deeply into his proud and 
sensitive heart. 

It. aggravated an illness which preyed upon him, and 
he died on the 28th of October, 1818, in his fifty -third 
year. 

Such was the career of the Due de Feltre, one of the 
most famous of the Irish exiles. 

Clarke was master of many languages. He wrote with 
ease, with elegance, and with cnrrectness ; his style was 
often brilliant, and he knew thoroughly all that apper- 
tained to the details of a war administration. The state 
of complete disorganization in which he found the French 
service after March, 1814, proves the admirable tact and 
skill with which he could bring order out of disorder. 

Many of the old Imperialists, his enemies, coarsely 
accused him of treason and treachery, but Napoleon takea 
care partly to exculpate him from charges so severe. 
On being asked at St. Helena if he believed that Clarke 
had been true to him, the fallen Emperor said, with a 
sigh— 

" True to me — yes, when I was in my strength ;" and 
after a time he added — " I cannot boast of him being 
more constant to me than Fortune." 

This lessens the alleged drime of Clarke, while, at the 
same time, it lessens his nobility of conduct ; though it 
must be acknowledged that he did not leave Napoleon 
until he could no longer be of service to him. The Em- 
peror was not easily deceived as to the fidelity of a 
ibllo wer. 



212 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

From Bourienne we know that, in 1796 and 1797, 
after all that passed between Napoleon and Clarke, the 
former still trusted in the latter, and never attempted to 
interrupt his despatches to the Directory or to the 
Chevalier de la Croix ; and nothing was ever found in 
them displeasing to the Commander-in-chief. 

Two great traits in the character of Clarke were, first, 
his hatred of all peculation and political knavery ; the 
other was his mania for office, and the despatches and 
details connected therewith. So poor was he during 
the earlier years of his career, that Napoleon had to 
portion one of his daughters ; and no instance of profusion 
or luxury has been cited against him. 

Inflated by his patent of nobility, he wished to make 
his genealogy great and lofty, and one day he believed 
that he had discovered his descent, by the female side, 
from the Plantagenets — an idea which exceedingly 
Amused Napoleon, who once said to him in a numerous 
company, about the time of his projected invasion of 
Britain, — 

"• Clarke, you have not yet spoken of your claims 
to the English throne — ^you ought now to make them 
good !"♦ 

* Biographie UuivenelUf &e. 



GENERAL KILMAINE. 3lS 



itneral pimatnt, 



COMMANDANT OF LOMBARDY AND GENERAL OF TnE 
ARMEE d'aNGLETERRE, 

Charles Jennings Kilmaine, a gallant and celebrated 
general in the French army, was born in Dublin in 
the year 1750, and was descended from an ancient Irish 
family which had always been strongly attached to the 
Roman Catholic religion, and opposed to the interests of 
England. So deep was the animosity of his father to the 
church and government as established in Ireland, that in 
1765 he took Charles to France, and there recommended 
him, when only in his fifteenth year, to enlist as a private 
hussar in the Regiment de Lauzun, a distinguislied cavalry 
corps of the old French service, raised originally in the 
departement of the Garonne. He accompanied this corps 
to America, where he served in the War of Independence 
under the celebrated Marquis de Lafayette, Grand Pro- 
vost of the kingdom of France, and was present in most 
of those battles in which Washington and his generals so 
signally discomfited the troops of Great Britain. Asso- 
ciation with officers of the United States army, added to 
those impressions made upon him during his youth in 
Ireland and the teachings of his father, caused Kilmaine 
to imbibe strongly the sentiments of a revolutionist. 

Ho repeatedly distinguished himself in action ; and his 
colonel, the gallant Biron, after passing him through the 
more subordinate ranks, appointed him sous-lieutenant of 
a troop. 

On the conclusion of the war, the Irish hussar returned 
with his regiment to France, full of those ideas of liberty 
and insurrection which he had seen so signally triumphant 
in the New World j and nearly all his brother officers had 



2H THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUXE, 

imbibed the same opinions. Thus it was with ill-concealed 
joy that the young Kilmaine and his comrades, the 
Hussars de Lauzun, in 1789, saw a Eevolution whicli 
seemed destined to achieve results like those they had 
witnessed in Americja, break forth in old monarchical 
France. 

In 1789 he was appointed captain of his troop, and 
continued to serve with the hussars, who became so much 
attached to him, that during the tumults of 1794 he con- 
tributed greatly, by his influence, presence and example, 
to retain under their colours nearly the whole of the regi- 
ment, which like the regiment of Royal Germans and tlie 
Hussars de Saxe, seemed disposed to desert en masse. 
Thanks to the patriotic zeal displayed by Kilmaine in the 
cause of his adopted country, the oS&cers of noble family 
who chose to become emigrants were alone lost to the 
service ; but this proved to him a new source of advance- 
ment, and he was soon appointed a chef cVescadre^ which 
in the French army is equal to the rank of a general 
officer, being commander of a division ; and about this 
time he enjoyed the friendship of his countiyman, the 
Corate O' Kelly, who was ambassador of France at 
Mayence, with an income of 30,000 livres per annum. 

As a chef d'escadre Kilmaine served throughout the 
first campaigns of the Revolution, and under Dumourier 
and Lafayette commanded a corps of that army which 
burst into the Netherlands and annexed that territory to 
republican France. 

He fought with remarkable bravery at the gi-eat battle 
of Gemappes, on the 6th November, 1792, and with his 
hussars repeatedly charged the Austrians, driving them 
sahre h la main along the road that leads from Mons to 
Valenciennes ; and so pleased was his general, the unfor- 
tunate Dumourier, that in the moment of victory he 
named him colonel ; but this nomination was not con- 
irmed by the minister of war. However, he was sooa 
after gratified by a brevet of marechal de camp, which 
made him, in rank, second only to a lieutenant-general. 

He continued to serve with this army, and to be one of 
its most active and able officers, during all the sufferings 



GENERAL KILMAINE. 215 

wliicli siicceedeil the victory at Gemappes. It consisted 
of forty-eight battalions of infantry, and three thousand 
two hundred cavalry. In December, by the neglect of 
the Revolutionary Government, these troops were shirt- 
less, shoeless, starving and in rags ; fifteen hundred men 
deserted ; the cavalry of Kilmaine were soon destitute oi 
boots, saddles, carbines, pistols and even sabres ; the mili- 
tary chest was empty, and six thousand troop and baggage 
horses died at Lisle and Tongres, for want of forage. " To 
such a state," says Dumourier, " was the victorious army 
of Gemappes reduced after the conquest of Belgia !" 

Honourable testimony has been given to the unceasing 
efforts of Kilmaine to preserve order among his soldiers 
amid these horrors ; and w^ith other staff-officers, he fre- 
quently endeavoured by private contribution to make out 
a day's subsistence for their men, who roved about in 
bands, robbing the villages around their cantonments at 
Aix-la-Chapelle, and in revenge many were murdered by 
the peasants when found straggling alone beyond their 
out-posts. 

After the defection and flight of General Dumourier, 
Kilmaine adhered to the National Convention, and by 
that body was appointed a general of division ; and now 
he redoubled his energies to restore order in the army, 
which by the defection of its leader was almost dis- 
banded ; thus, in one month after General Dampierre 
took command, so ably was he seconded by Kilmaine, 
the discipline was completely established. 

He commanded the advance-guard of Dampierre in the 
new campaign against the allied powers, on the failure of 
the congress at Antwerp on the 8th of April, 1793 ; and 
his leader bears the highest testimony to the gallantry 
and noble conduct of Kilmaine, in the " murderous affairs 
of the 1st and 2nd May;" in which, according to the 
official report, he had two chargers sliot under him. 

Six days of incessant skirmishing succeeded, during 
which Kilmaine never had his boots off, nor returned his 
sabre once to the scabbard ; and he displayed the most 
reckless valour on the 8th of May, in that battle fought 
by Dampierre to deliver Conde. 



216 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

The French were routed with great loss ; Dampierre 
was slain ; and on Kilmaine as an active cavalry officer 
devolved the task of covering the retreat of the infuriated 
and disorderly army, which fell back from Conde-sur- 
I'Escaut, which is a barrier town, and was then the 
nominal lordship of the unfortunate Duke d'Enghien. 

On General la Marche succeeding Dampierre, he sent 
Kilmaine with his division to the great forest of Ardennes, 
which formed a part of the theatre of war, on the invasion 
of France by the allies ; but he remained there only a 
Bhort time, and rejoined the main army, which he found 
in the most critical circumstances. 

The fall of Dampierre and the arrestment of Custine 
acted fatally on the army of the North, which was now 
reduced to about thirty thousand rank and file, and these 
remained in a disorderly state, without a proper chief, 
and without aim or object — its manoeuvres committed to 
chance or directed by ignorance ; for, with the exception 
of Kilmaine, its leaders were destitute of skill, experience, 
and energy. Quitting the camp of Caesar, they returned 
to their fortified position at Famars, three miles distant 
from Valenciennes, the approach to which it covered. 
Here they were attacked on the 23rd of May, driven back, 
and obliged to abandon the city to its own garrison under 
General Ferrand; a success which enabled the allies under 
the Duke of York to lay immediate siege to Cond^ and to 
Valenciennes, the two monfc important barrier towns upon 
the northern frontier. While the army of the North 
continued in full retreat towards the Scheldt, the British 
commander-in-chief briskly attacked Valenciennes, which 
General Ferrand first laid in ashes, and then delivered 
up ; his garrison, as the reward of their obstinate defence, 
being permitted to march out by the gate of Cambray, on 
the 28th of July, with all the honours of war. Condi had 
already fallen on the 10th of the same month. 

General Custine, who in the two preceding campaigns 
had rendered such essential services to the faithless Con- 
vention, was meanwhile brought to trial on the charge of 
corresponding with the enemy, and fell a sacrifice to the 
malice of his accusers. 



GENERAL KILMAINE. 2 IT 

Ifc was on the banks of tlie Scheldt that Kiluiain& 
rejoined the army early in August, with his division from 
Ardennes; and now his position became almost desperate. 
In presence of the scaffold erected by the ferocious muti- 
neers for all the vanquished generals, and in a camp where 
no suspected person dared to assume the precarious office 
of leader, when pressed upon him, he accepted the baton 
provisionally, and in the meantime said to the representa- 
tives who were sent from Paris to manage affairs and act 
iis spies upon the army, " that be vished »,3iother more 
skilful than himself should take the great responsibility 
of leading the troops of the Republic." 

His presence for a time appeased the tumults in the 
army. Though upon the banks of the Scheldt, and 
having before him both the Duke of York and the Prince 
of Coburg, Kilmaine, with only twenty-four thousand 
ill-appointed troops, dared not attempt to attack them ; 
for if he fought and lost the day, he could thereafter 
assume no position of sufficient strength to prevent the 
allies from penetrating to Paris and crushing the power 
of the Convention. After so many levies and enrolments, . 
that body had no longer a battalion to spare, and had 
around it only the frothy orators of armed clubs, and the 
refuse of prisons ; thus it dared not abandon the capital 
or retire beyond the Loire, for now the men of Poitou, 
Bretagne, and La Vendee were in arms under the white 
banner, and elsewhere the tides of war and politics were 
setting in against them. At this crisis Mayence had 
capitulated, after a three months' bombardment. Toulon 
was under the cannon of the British ; the Spaniards had- 
invaded Roussillon j the Austro-Sardinians menaced Pro- 
vence, the ancient patrimony of the House of Anjou ; 
and on the Alps their troops hung over Dauphine and 
Vienne ; finally, after the revolution of the 31st of May, 
which had assured the triumph of Robespierre, Lyons, 
Marseilles, and ail the departments of the south, with 
those of the west, were roused against the pride, power, 
and oppression of the Convention. 

If it was really true that the allied monarchs wished 
to re-establish the fallen throne of Louis XVI., — if. us 



51^ THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNS. 

they had so proudly announced in their manifestos, it 
was to restore order to bleeding and desolated France, 
and to repress the Republic and its horrors, — they had dis- 
played their standards in the Netherlands, never were 
circumstances more favourable to them than after the 
retreat of Kilmaine towards the Scheldt : but the secret 
measures of wily diplomatists had more influence then, 
on events, than the arms of the allied kings. 

It ai)pears that, in the second campaign, when the allies 
were mastei'S of Cond6 and Valenciennes, and saw that 
the road to Paris was almost open to them, the Austrians 
wished to take their revenge locally for the cruel deeds of 
which they had been spectators in the Camp de la Lune ; j 
and were more intent upon gratifying this sentiment than 
advancing into the heart of France. ' 

The Prince of Coburg had shown himself from the 
first frank, loyal, and gallant ; he had promised to 
Dumourier to concur in his daring project for re-estab- 
lishing the monarchy, and for that purpose had engaged 
to form an auxiliary force to aid him, while solemnly 
renouncing all projects of aggrandizement for the crown 
of Austria. But for these engagements he had not re- 
ceived from his cabinet either instnictions or authority. 
When Thugut was supreme director of the Austrian 
affairs, it was to these rash promises of the prince his 
consent was required ; he disapproved of them so strongly, 
that they were cancelled by the Emperor of Austria, and 
a congress met at Antwerp, where, in concert with 
Britain, it was decided that in the result of the war the 
- allies ought to find indemnities fnr the past, and guaran- 
tees for the lature peace of Europe. 

These were the expressions of the protocol which the 
members of the congi*ess comprehended without diffi- 
culty; but French diplomatists loudly declared that a 
projected dismemberment of France was clearly an- 
nounced in its phraseology. 

One thing is certain : not a reference was made therein 
to the House of Bourbon, or to the throne of Louis — 
that throne of which Dumourier, in concert with the 



GEXERAL KILMAINE. 519 

Prince of Coburg, liad so boldly promised the resfcora- 
tion in his manifesto of the 5tli April ; and not a measure 
was taken for the advantage or safety of the beautiful 
and unhappy Marie Antoinette, then languishing in 
prison at Paris, and over whose devoted head hung the 
blade of the guillotine, and whom a simple menace from 
her nephew the Emperor, threatening the advance of his 
armies, might perhaps have saved. 

At all events, it seemed sufficientl]?- evident to the 
jealous and excitable French that the allies w^ere no 
longer true to the interests of the fallen Bourbons ; and 
equally so that it was not to restore them the Austrians 
at least made war. It was in his own name — not that of 
Louis XVII., king of France and Navarre — their em- 
peror took possession of those fortified places and pro- 
vinces which his armies overran ; and after he became 
master of Conde and Valenciennes, he no longer cared to 
•define or form a frontier for those districts of the Nether- 
lands which once he proposed to cede to the Prussians ; 
but which Thugut now wished to preserv^e to the descen- 
dants of Rudolph of Hapsburg. 

At the same time the Duke of York, who from his 
own cabinet had received orders and instructions similar 
to those given to the Prince of Coburg, in the name of 
George III., resolved to seize upon Dunkerque, which 
the English had coveted of old ; but he did not wait for 
the departure of a British fleet prepared for this object. 
The naval squadron was delayed, and in the meantime 
the duke deliberated with the Austrian general under 
the ramparts of Valenciennes, to learn if, before engaging 
in new sieges, they might not give to the French army a 
final blow which would deprive Kilmaine of all power 
of interrupting their combined operations. 

This was a very simple question, yet they were four- 
teen days in coming to a conclusion. Though Valen- 
ciennes, as already stated, had capitulated on the 28th of 
July, it was not until the 8th of August that the Austro- 
British army was in motion, and its advance guard 
beheld the camp of Cffisar ; this on the very day after 



220 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

Kilmaine had wisely evacuated the fortifications and re- 
treated southwards. 

It is said that he fully anticipated the march of the 
combined armies ; and this was sufficiently probable, for 
we know that the committees of the National Conven- 
tion had mysterious means of procuring secret intelli- 
gence, not only from the cabinets of the allies, but from 
the staff officers of the German troops ! 

Kilmaine in retiring only obeyed the dictates of wisdom 
and necessity, and quitted a position which he could not 
defend, as his army was reduced by defeat and desertion, 
mutinous, or as the French style it, demoralized. 

If the allies had wished to follow and engage him. upon 
the Scarpe or the Somme, a last effort could easily have 
been made to disperse his troops completely, and then 
seize upon Paris, where they might have torn the Revolu- 
tion from its A^ery basis. But such was not the intention 
of the allied generals. " Their aim on this occasion," 
says a French writer, " was to profit by our disorders and 
revolutions to make themselves masters of our places and 
provinces after assuring themselves of indemnities and 
guarantees, and to leave the volcano to consume itself, as 
a Prussian prince said, not long ago : it must be admitted, 
that never had this policy shown itself more evidently in 
its shameful nudity 1' But the reader must bear in mind 
that these are the opinions of a Frenchman and a sympa- 
thizer with the Convention. 

Such was the state of matters when Kilmaine, having 
abandoned the untenable camp of Caesar, and fallen back 
beyond the Scarpe, a navigable river of French Flanders 
(but still a narrower barrier than the Scheldt) prepared 
again for retreat, and marched towards the Somme, 
another river which falls into the British Channel between 
Crotoy and Sainte Valori. This was his last position — 
his last asylum ; and now the chiefs of the allies, instead 
of pushing on in pursuit of his retiring bands to com- 
plete the triumphs so well begun, faced about, and 
wheeled off to seize Dunkerque and Quesnay. 

It was in autumn that the Royal Duke appeared 
before the former ; and there his troops received a check 



GENEhAL KILMAINE. 221 

which proved but the commenceraent of a long series of 
disasters ; the latter was stormed by the Aiistrians, and 
retalven by the French in the following year. 

Bat what must astonish us, even at this epoch oi 
deception and duplicity, political insanity and revenge, 
is tlie startling fact that the brave Kilmaine, who had 
rendered such gallant services to that new and most 
faithless Republic — he who by a judicious retreat (exe- 
cuted against the advice of the meddling and presump- 
tuous representatives of the people, and in consequence 
thereof perilled his life) had preserved to sliattered France 
her most important army, was precisely for that reason 
denounced to the Convention, arrested by its orders, and 
flung into a loathsome prisons at Paris, where he passed 
a year ; being but too happy, in the obscurity of his dun- 
geon, that he had not perished on the scaffold like the 
gallant Custine, his predecessor in the command ; like his 
old colonel and protector Biron, and like Houchard, 
who for the brief period of fifteen days had been his suc- 
cessor, and who, after winning a signal and decided 
victory over the Duke of York — a victory alike honour- 
able to himself and to the arms of France, expiated by 
a cruel death the grave fault of having forgotten for a 
moment the powers of a bullying representative of the 
people ! 

Kilmaine only recovered his liberty after the fall of 
Robespierre ; but he still remained for some time in 
Paris, without military employment, though he eagerly 
and anxiously sought it. He found himself there at the 
epoch of the insurrection of the 22nd May, 1795, and 
with much zeal and valour he seconded General Pichegni 
in the struggle made by that officer to defend the National 
Convention against the excited mobs of the Parisian 
fauxbourgs. Amid a thousand dangers Kilmaine con- 
tinued to fight for the Convention until the 13th Vende- 
maire of the year following, actively co-operating with 
Bonaparte and the revolutionary party. 

Being appointed to the command of a division in the 
army of Italy, he marched with Napoleon across the 
Alps to the invasion of that country, and shared in the 



222 THE CAVALIERS OF FOIITUNE. 

glory of his fii-st victories, and in that brilliant campaign 
in which the French destroyed two armies, took two 
hundred and eighty pieces of cannon, and forty-nine stand 
of colours from the Austrians, who were commanded by 
the veteran Wurmser, the bravest of all brave men. 

At the head of his division Kilmaine fought with re- 
markable courage at Castiglione delle Stiviere, a fortified 
town in Lombardy, where, in the beginning of August, 
1796, several severe engagements took place between the 
French and Austrians, which resulted in the discomfiture 
of the latter. Mantua was the next scene of Kilmaine's 
achievements ; and in July that ancient city, after fifty 
yesLTS of peace, beheld the army of Napoleon before its 
walls, while all the country on the right bank of the Po 
was laid under contribution. 

The whole direction and charge of the siege of Mantua 
was committed to Kilmaine by Bonaparte in September, 
when Wurmser, after being successful against General 
Massena, was overthrown by Augereau and our Irish 
soldier, and after a six days' contest shut himself up in 
tne city on the 1 2th, after which the siege was pressed 
with great vigour. Twice after this did an Austrian 
army under Alvinzi attempt its relief, and twice were 
they baffled by the besiegei-s ; on the last occasion an 
advancing corps of seven thousand men were compelled to 
surrender to Bonaparte and Kilmaine within gunshot of 
the walls, and the position of the aged Wurmser, his 
garrison, and the Mantuans, became desperate in the 
extreme. 

In an action before Mantua in October, Kilmaine had 
his horse killed under him, and a rumour was spread 
through France and Britain that he was killed. Wurmser 
made several furious sallies, and on one occasion was se- 
verely routed by Bonaparte. In the Courier du Bas Rhiuy 
we are told that the French repulsed him with the loss of 
eleven hundred men and five pieces of cannon, and that 
"their dispositions were made by General Kilmaine, 
commander of the siege of Mantua." Bonaparte, in his 
dispatch to the Directory, dated the firat day a*^ October^ 
writes thus ;— 



GENERAL KILMAINE. 223 

"On tlie 20tli of September, tlie enemy advanced 
towards Castellocio, with a body of horse 12,000 strong. 
Pursuant to the orders they had received, our advanced 
posts fell back, but the enemy did not push forward any 
further. On the 23rd September, they proceeded to 
Governolo, along the right bank of the Mincio, but were 
repulsed, after a very brisk cannonade, with the loss of 
eleven hundred men and five pieces of cannon. 

"Ze General Kilmainey who commands the two di- 
visions which press the siege of Mantua, remained on the 
29th ultimo in his former position, and was still in hopes 
that the enemy would attempt a sortie to carry forage 
into the place ; but instead they took up a position before 
the gate of Pradello, near the Carthusiaii convent and 
the chapel of Cerese. The brave General Kilmaine made 
his arrangements for an attack, and advanced in two 
columns against these two points ; but he had scarcely 
begun to march when the enemy evacuated their camps, 
their rear having fired only a few muaket-shots at him. 
The advanced posts of General Vaubois have come up 
with the Austrian division which defends the Tyrol, and 
made one hundred and ten prisoners." 

In November a series of sanguinary actions wei-e fought 
between the French and Austrians at Areola, where the 
latter were completely overthrown ; and there fell Citizen 
Elliot, a Scotsman, who was one of Bonaparte's principal 
aides-de-camp. During this time Kilmaine was at Vi- 
cenza with three thousand men ; all the French cavaliy 
were sent there to be under his orders ; and though still 
commanding the operations against Mantua, he shared 
in the disastrous battle fought near Vicenza by the aged 
Alvinzi, who was advancing to raise the siege. Despair- 
ing to reach Mantua, the latter fell back upon the Vicenza 
road, and was routed after a bloody conflict of eight hours' 
duration. 

Early in December, Wurmser led a sortie, sword in 
hand, against Kilmaine. The Imperialists sallied out of 
Mantua at seven in the morning, and almost in the dark, 
uixder a furious cannonade, which lasted all day ; " but 
General Kilmaine," says Bonaparte, "made him return, as 



If24 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

usual, faster than he came out, and took from hiin two 
hundred men, one howitzer, and two pieces of cannon. 
This is his third unsuccessful attempt." So enerf^etic 
were the measures, and so able the precautions of Kil- 
maine, that Wurmser, seeing all hope of succour at au 
end, surrendered, after a long, desperate, and disastrous 
defence, at ten o'clock on the morning of the 3rd Fe- 
bruary, 1797, giving up his soldiers as prisoners of war. 
The following is a translation of Kilmaine's brief letter 
on this important acquisition : — 

"Kilmaine, General de Division and Commandant of 
Lombardy, to the Minister of War. Milan, 17 Pluviose 
(Feb. 5), 1797. 

" Citizen Minister — I avail myself of a courier which 
€reneral Bonaparte sends from Romagna (in order to 
announce to the Directory the defeat of the Papal troops), 
to acquaint you with the capture of Mantua, the news of 
which I received yesterday evening by a courier from 
Mantua itself I thought it necessary to announce this 
circumstance, because General Bonaparte, who is occupied 
in Bomagna annihilating the troops of his Holiness, may 
probably have been ignorant of this fact when his courier 
departed. Tho garrison are our prisoners of war, and are 
to be sent into Germany in order to be exchanged. I 
have not yet received the articles of capitulation ; but 
the commander-in-chief will not fail to send them by the 
first courier. Kilmaine." 

The capture of Mantua was celebrated in Paris by the 
firing of cannon and the erection of arches in honour of 
Bonaparte and the Irish Commandant of Lombardy, and 
a general joy was dififused through every heart in the 
city on the fall of what they styled the Gibraltar of 
Italy; while Bonaparte, loaded with the diamonds of 
the vanquished Pope, and the spoils of our Lady of 
Loretto, pushed on to seek fresh conquests and new 
laurels. 

Kilmaine remained for some time in command at 
Mantua after its capitulation. 



GENERAL KILMAINE. . 225 

During tLe siege and other events, a revolutionary 
spirit had pervaded the Venetian States. Peschiera, a 
fortified town in the province of Yerona, and Brescia, a 
large city in the beautiful plain on the Garza, had been 
both seized, garrisoned, and republicanized by the French. 
The people rose in arms, fired by new and absurd ideas ck 
liberty and equality, and frightful scenes of bloodshed 
ensued when the more loyal and sensible inhabitants 
resisted these new patriots ; but the latter, on being 
joined by fifteen hundred banditti from Bergamo, 
pressed the Venetian troops, who were driven out with 
great slaughter. 

On hearing of these things, the politic Kilmaine wrote 
from Mantua to the French general commanding in 
Brescia, desiring him " not to interfere in behalf of these 
insurgents, lest by so doing he might infringe that strict 
neutrality which the generals of the French Eepublio 
were bound to observe." 

In April, however, he was compelled, by the violent 
proceedings of the Italians against the French garrison in 
Verona, to unite his forces to those of Generals Victor 
and La Hotze, and march to the succour of General Bal- 
laud, who was there assailed by forty -five thousand men, 
whose war-cry was Viva San Marco ! who had cut to 
pieces six hundred Frenchmen, taken two thousand more 
after a four hours' contest, and driven the rest into the 
castle. From its ramparts Ballaud threatened to lay in 
ruins the unfortunate city, which had enjoyed profound 
peace for ages, until Bonaparte arrived on the banks of 
the Adige, and added it to the new kingdom of Italy. 

On the 24th the insurgent Veronese capitulated, for on 
the approach of Kilmaine the governor, the two pro- 
ved itori, and the Venetian general Stratico, fled with all 
their cavalry ; on which he took as hostages the bishop, 
four of the principal nobles of the city, and several ca- 
valiers of distinction, and peace was thus restored for a 
time. He disarmed all the insurgents, and seized three 
thousand slaves, whom he marched under an escort to 
Milan. In every way Kilmaine aided Napoleon most 
efficiently in these operations which preceded the capture 



826 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

jnad subjugation of Venice ; and thus gave his great 
leader a thousand causes to admire and appreciate him 
during those campaigns which were so disastrous to Italy, 
but so glorious to the arms of France. During his com- 
mand in Lombardy he settled or compromised the con- 
tested question of the free navigation of the Lake ot 
Lugano, in the south of Switzerland, which had occasioned 
many angry disputes between the jealous Switzers and the 
aggressive generals of the French army in Italy. By his 
intervention it was satisfactorily arranged that France 
should have the open navigation of the lake by boats of 
any size : but the cantons violated the treaty; on which 
Napoleon threatened to send a column of his troops 
among them, if they did not behave more amicably to- 
wards their faithful and ancient allies. 

At this time General Sir John Acton, the favourite 
minister of Naples at Milan, was a soldier of fortune, and 
the intimate friend of Kilmaine. The stoiy of Acton is 
rather a singular one. 

He was the son of a Jacobite gentleman who had emi- 
grated to France and settled at Besangon. An imsuc- 
cessful love adventure forced him to leave that city, at 
the college of which he was studying physic with every 
prospect of distinction. Repairing to Toiilon, he enlisted 
in a battalion of French marines. From this corps he 
passed into the Neapolitan service, and distinguished him- 
self at sea against a Barbary corsair ; on which he received 
a commission in the marines of Na{)les, and rose to 
the rank of general, Counsellor of State, and Knight of 
San Oennaro and Saint Stephen. He possessed a high 
spirit, great courage, good address, and a handsome figure ; 
and he soon became at the Court of Naples what the 
Prince of Peace was at Madrid — the favourite and lover 
of the Queen. He died in 1811. Another of Kilmaine's 
friends was the veteran general O'Cher, a cJtef de brigade, 
who had been upwards of forty years in the service of 
Louis XVI. and of the Republic, and held an important 
command in the army of Italy. 

In the Memoirs published by General Count Montholon, 
liud which were written by that faithful officer at St. 



GENERAL KILMAINE. 227 

Helena, we have the following descriptive reference to the 
Commandant of Lombardy : — 

" Kilmaine, being an excellent cavalry officer, had cool- 
ness and foresight ; he was well fitted to command a 
corps of observation, detached upon those arduous or 
delicate commissions which require spirit, discernment, 
and sound judgment. He rendered important services tf 
the army, of which he was one of the principal generals^ 
notwithstanding the delicacy of his health. He had a 
great knowledge of the Austrian troops : familiar with 
their tactiques, he did not allow himself to be imposed 
upon by those rumours which they were in the habit of 
spreading in the rear of an army, nor to be dismayed by 
those heads of columns which they were wont to display 
in every direction, to deceive as to the real strength of 
their forces. His political opinions were veiy mode- 
rate." 

These are the words of a brother soldier, who must 
have known him well in the laud of his adoption. 

In the spring of 1798, the French Government was 
seriously employed in preparations for a descent upon the 
British Islands ; and, in the February of that year, marched 
to the coast of the Channel forty demi-brigades of infantry, 
thirty-four regiments of cavalry, two regiments of horse 
ai-tillery, two regiments of foot artillery, six companies of 
sappers and pioneers, six battalions of miners and pon- 
tooniers. Tliese forces were led by eighteen distinguished 
generals of division, and forty-seven generals of brigade — 
the most brave and able in France. Among the former 
were Charles Kilmaine, Berthier, Marescat, Kleber, 
Massena, " the son of Eai)ine ;" Macdonald, Ney, Victor, 
and otiiers whose names were to become famous in 
future wars as the marshal dukes of the great military 
empire. 

The brave but blustering Jean Baptist Kleber, who 
had originally been an architect of Strasbourg, commanded 
the right wing of this Armee cT Amjleterre, which was to 
stretch from Calais to the mouth of the Scheldt, while 
another corps assembled at Flashing. 

Kilmaine commanded the centre. 
q2 



228 THE CAVAtilERSj OF FORTUNE. 

These forces were partly composed of troops returned 
from Italy, and were all experienced soldiers, the victors 
of Mantua, Lodi, and Areola. Headed by bands of 
music, the etdt-majors marched through Paris, displaying 
black banners, indicative of a war of extermination, and 
inscribed, "Descent upon England — Live the Republic! 
May Britain perish," &c. 

On St. Patrick's day, the 17th of the following month, 
Xilmaine, O'Cher, Colonel Shee, and all the Irishmen in 
Paris celebrated their ancient national and religious 
festival by a grand banquet, at which the notorious 
Thomas Paine — then a political fugitive — assisted. All 
the corresponding members of the Irish clubs and mal- 
content party at home were also present. Many fierce 
end stirring political toasts were drunk, amid vociferous 
enthusiasm ; and among these — one in particular — " Long 
live the Irish Republic !" and speeches were made ex- 
pressive of the rapid progress which republicanism had 
made in their native country, and of the strong desire of 
the Catholics and Dissenters to throw off the yoke of 
England — ^that yoke which Kilmaine in his boyhood had 
been taught to abhor and to hate. Napper Tandy, a 
jeneral de brigade, was in the chair ; on his left sat Tom 
Paine, and on his right sat Kilmaine, who, immediately 
after the banquet, left Paris to rejoin his column of the 
army on the coast. 

Five hundred gunboats were ordered to be prepared, 
and three hundred sail of transports were collecting at 
Dunkirk, to be protected from the British fleet by a 
Dutch squadron then at the mouth of the Scheldt ; and 
all Britain was in arms on hearing of an armament so 
formidable. 

The condition of France was then desperate ; assignats 
were at 6500 livres the louis ; she had to maintain a 
million of men in arms from an empty treasury; the 
ruffian demagogues and savage soldiers of the Republic^ 
men steeped to the lips in the blood of women and 
priests, nobles and aristocrats, hardened by the atrocities 
in La Vendee, and trained to the war in the campaigns of 
Austria and Italy, occupied every post and place under 



GENERAL KILMAINE. 229 

the unstable government ; a rabble of \)rutal ministers 
occupied the palaces of the fallen line of St. Louis, armed 
with sabres and pistols, to which they resorted in every 
trivial dispute and on every difference of opinion, and 
while warring against all manner of title and form, 
appeared on the rostrum in cassocks and stockings oi 
rose-coloured silk, with knots of scarlet ribands in their 
shoes ; and, with that mixture of ferocity and torn-foolery 
which caused Paris to be characterized as a city of 
monkeys and tigers, debated on the cut of a coat and the 
massacre of a city. 

In April, Kilmaine repaired to Paris, after having 
executed, by order of the government, a survey of the 
coasts of France and Holland, then reduced to a province 
of the former ; and the chief command of this famous 
xVrmee d'Angleterre on which the eyes of all Europe 
were fixed, and the command of which had been given to 
the noble Dessaix, the hero of Marengo, was now bestowed 
upon him. 

A French writer asserts that this expedition was des- 
tined, not for Britain, but for Egypt ; and that Kilmaine re- 
ceived the command of it, not so much for his great military 
skill, as to deceive our ministry ; supposing that the name 
of an Irishman would cause them to believe that the 
armament was destined for Ireland ; and so they named 
him General in Chief of the Arniee d'Angleterre, which 
never existed at all." Unfortunately for this writer, 
history affords abundant proof to the contrary. The 
number of transports was soon increased to a thousand, 
and all the naval and military resources of Holland were 
pressed into the French service. 

Colonel Shee, Wolfe Tone, Generals Clarke and Kil- 
maine, were by this time well acquainted with the extent 
of the military organization of the United Irishmen, and 
knew that by the close of the preceding year the people 
were well provided with arms, and knew the use of them. 
In the beginning of 1797, great quantities were dis- 
covered and seized by the British Government, who, in 
Leinster and Ulster alone, captured 70,630 pikes, with 
48,109 muskets. Had the Irish managed their projected 



230 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

rising with the vigour which has ever charjicterized the 
Scottish insurrections, we cannot for a moment doubt 
what would have been the result, had this formidable 
expedition once landed in Ireland, where no yeomanry- 
were organized ; where the militia were not to be de- 
pended upon ; and where the king's troops, on whom the 
ministry mainly relied, were so little superior to the 
French in tact and skill, that Humbert, with less than a 
(thousand men, was able to defeat double that number, 
and immediately after received into his ranks 250 of 
the drilled and attested Irish militiamen. 

On the 12th April, Kilmaine, with General Bonaparte, 
had a long audience with the Directory at Paris, report- 
ing on the state of their armaments. The appointment 
of the former to the chief command relieved Britain of 
the apprehension that the conqueror of Italy would cross 
the Channel in person, and great was the disappointment 
of the malcontents at home. 

The duties of Kilmaine were alike harassing and ar- 
duous, as he had to superintend the equipment and orga- 
nization of this vast force, composed of men of all arms 
and several nations ; and he was repeatedly summoned to 
Paris, even in the middle of the night, by couriers who 
ovei-took him in his progresses ; thus, though suffering 
under severe ill health, the Directory once brought him 
on the spur from Bruges early in July, and again from 
Brest about the end of the same month. 

Citizen d'Arbois, an ojQficer on the staff of Kilmaine, 
in a letter published in the Parisian papers of the 
7th August, 1798, states that his general "is on his 
return," after having made a tour of the coast, from Port 
St. Malo to L'Orient ; that he was well satisfied with 
the state of the French ports and armaments, and had 
enjoyed with delight the magnificent aspect of Brest, 
in the harbour of which he saw thirty sail of the line, 
with a fleet of frigates and transports. D'Arbois states 
that Kilmaine had been surveying Brittany, where all 
was then peaceful, by the " wise measures" of the consti- 
tuted authorities. " The eagerness with which our 
troops, both by sea and land, await the moment when, 



GENERAL KILMAINE. 231 

under the brave Kilmaine, they will engage the English, 
is the best pledge of our approaching success, and the miu 
of our enemies." 

It is evident that Citizen d'Ai*bois had then no thoucrht 
of fighting in Egypt. 

But doubts hovered in the minds of the Directory, if 
there were none in the hearts of their generals, and long 
delays ensued. General Hoche, under whom the future 
Dukes of Kovigo and of Yicenza were serving as private 
soldiers, and who was the main spring of the projected 
movement in favour of Ireland, died in September, 1797 ; 
and Bonaparte, to whom Kilmaine, Tone, Shee, and others 
of the Irish patriots turned, had no sympathy with their 
cause, as all his views were now directed towards a war- 
fare in the East. By the beginning of autumn tbe Direc- 
tory began to break up their boasted Armee d'Angleterre, 
and withdrew their troops to reinforce their columns on 
the Bhine. Upon this, Kilmaine came anxiously and 
liastily to Paris to confer with the government and the 
Minister of Marine concerning the embarkation of the 
troops and departure of the fleet from Brest ; but his 
f|uestions were waived, or left unanswered, although the 
division of Bompard, consisting of the Hoche of 74 guns 
and eighteen frigates, filled with troops under General 
Hardy, destined for Ireland, remained with their cables 
hove short, and all ready for sea at a moment's notice. 

Of the forces that reaUy sailed for Ireland, and their 
faite, we need not inform the reader. Eor a time all 
Britain supposed they were led by the commander-in- 
chief in person ; and all the press of England and Scot- 
land teemed with blustering or scurrilous remarks on 
" Paddy Kilmaine and his followers ;" but the general 
never embarked, though he certainly superintended the 
departure of a body of troops from Rochfort. 

" We are assured," says a Brussels print, " that in Ciise 
the French republicans shall be able to make a successful 
descent upon Ireland, the Belgic youth will be employed 
in that country under General Kilmaine, who, being % 
native of it, will there have the command of tlie unitt^ 
Erench and Irish forces." Citizen Macdonagh was t4 



232 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

have a high command in the corps of Irish Marines, tfe 
held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in France. 

By the end of 1798 the army of England and its ex- 
pedition were alike dissolved, and the Directory wished to 
give Kilmaine command of the forces assembled for the 
war in Egypt; but for the present his career finished 
with the military examination of the coasts of France 
and Holland. 

In 1799 the Directory appointed him generalissimo of 
the army of Helvetia, as they chose to designate Switzer- 
land ; thus reviving the ancient name of the people whom 
Julius Caesar conquered. The French troops already oc- 
cupied Lombardy on one side, and the Hhenish provinces 
on the other ; thus they never doubted their ability to con- 
quer the Swiss and remodel the Helvetic constitution. 
Kilmaine accepted the command with satisfaction, but 
his failing health compelled him to give up his baton to 
Massena ; and with a sorrow which he could not conceal, 
he saw that army march which penetrated into the heart 
of the Swiss mountains, and imposed on their hardy in- 
habitants a constitution in which Bonaparte, under the 
plausible title of Mediator, secured the co-operation of 
the valiant descendants of the Helvetii in his further 
schemes of conquest and ambition. 

In a feeble condition Kilmaine returned to Paris, where 
his domestic sorrows and chagrins added to the poignancy 
of his bodily sufferings, for his constitution was now com- 
pletely broken up. 

Struck by a deadly malady, he died on the 15th of 
December, 1799, in the forty-ninth year of his age, at the 
very moment when the triumphant elevation of Bona- 
p&rte was opening up to his comrades a long and brilliant 
career of military glory. He was interred with all the 
honours due to his rank and bravery, and a noble mona* 
meut was erected to his memory. 



COUNTS o'rEILLY AND O DONNEL. ETa 233 



Counts §'^nlli §'§mml 

AND THE IRISH IN SPAIN. 

Ireland, says a popular Scottish writer, can boast not 
only of having transplanted more of her sons to the soil 
of Spain than either of the sister kingdoms, but of having 
acquired by the deeds of her exiles a degree of renown to 
which the others cannot aspire. 

True it is, that in every land brave men find a home ! 

The deeds of the Irish regiments in the Spanish service, 
during the War of the Succession, like those of the O'Don- 
nels in the war of the Peninsula, and the civil strife of 
more recent times, would fill volumes. Of the Spanish 
Lacys I have already given a memoir ; and of many 
other brave Irish soldiers of fortune, who won distinction 
on the soil or in the service of Spain, I can here give 
but the names alone. 

Owen Roe O'Neil, of Ulster, rose to high rank in the 
Spanish Imperial service and held an important post in 
Catalonia. He defended An^as against Louis XIII. in 
1640, and when forced to surrender, he did so, says Carte, 
" upon honourable terms ; yet his conduct in the defence 
was such as gave him great reputation, and procured him 
extraordinary respect even from the enemy ;" and the 
brave O' Sullivan Bearra of Dunbuy, who fled in the 
days of James I., became Governor of Corunna under 
Philip lY. 

Lieutenant-General Don Carlos Felix O'Neile (son of 
the celebrated Sir Neil O'Neile of Ulster, slain at the 
battle of the Boyne), was Governor of Havannah and 
favourite of Charles III. of Spain ; he died at Madrid in 
1791, after attaining: the great age of one hundred and 
ten years. 



234 THE CAVALIEKS OF FORTUNE. 

In 1780, Colonel O'Moore commanded the Royal Wal- 
loon Guards of Charles III. In 1799, Field-Marshal 
Arthur O'Neil was Governor-General of Yucatan under 
the same monarch, and commanded the flotilla of thirty- 
one vessels which made an unsuccessful attack on the 
British settlements in the Bay of Honduras. In the 
same year, Don Gonzalo O'Farrel was the Spanish am- 
bassador at the Court of Berlin, and in 1808 he was 
Minister of War for Spain. In 1797, O'Hiorgins was 
A^iceroy of Peini, under Charles IV., one of whose best 
generals was the famous Alexander Count O'Keilly. 

Don Pedro O'Daly was Governor of Rosas when it 
was besieged by Gouvion St. Cyr in 1809 ; and General 
John O'Donoughue was chief of Cuesta's staff, and one 
of the few able officers about the person of that indolent 
and obstinate old hidalgo, whose incapacity nearly caused 
the ruin of the Spanish affairs at the commencement of 
the Peninsula war. He died Viceroy of Mexico in 
1816. 

O'Higgins was Viceroy of Peru under Ferdinand VI. 
and the third and fourth Charles of Spain. He signalized 
himself with great bravery in the wars with the Aran- 
canos, a nation on the coast of Chili, who were ultimately 
subdued by him and subjected to the Spanish rule. John 
Campbell, a midshipman who escaped from the wreck of 
the Wager, one of Commodore Anson's squadron which 
was lost on the large island of Tierra del Fuego, and wha 
arrived, after inconceivable sufferings, at St. Jago de 
Chili, furnished O'Higgins with various notes and outlines 
of the coast, and other memoranda concerning the 
natives, all of which he had ingeniously written on the 
bark of trees. These obsei'vations, which were afterwards 
printed in England, were of the greatest value to O'Hig- 
gins, who was wont to affirm that by the knowledge 
they gave him of the barbarians under his government, 
" he owed the foundation of his good fortune to Camp- 
fct'll." 

In 1765, he marched against the Ai*aucanos with a 
l.Rttalion of Chilian infantry, and fifteen hundred horsey 



COUNTS O'REILLY AND o'dONNEL, ETC. 235 

uamed Maulinians. He was thrice brought to the ground 
by having three horses killed under him ; but the Arau- 
canos were routed, and the Spanish rule extended over all 
Peru, of which he died viceroy in the beginning of the 
present century, after fighting the battles of E-ancagua 
and Talchuana, which secured the independence of Chili. 
Few names bear a more prominent place in Spanish 
history than those of Blake, the Captain-General of the 
Coronilla, and O'JReilly, a soldier of fortune, who saved 
the life of Charles III. during the revolt at Madrid, and 
who reformed and disciplined anew the once noble army 
of Spain. 

Alexander Count O'Reilly was born in Ireland about 
1735, of Roman Catholic parents, and when young en- 
tered the Spanish service as a sub-lieutenant in the Irish 
regiment with which he served in Italy during the wai- 
of the Spanish Succession, and received a wound from 
which he was rendered lame for the rest of his life. Ip 
1751 he went to serve in Austria, and made two cam- 
paigns against the Prussians, under the orders of Marshal 
Count Lacy, his countryman. Then in 1759 he passed 
into the service of Louis XV., under whose coloui-s was 
still that celebrated Irish Brigade whose native bravery 
so mainly contributed to win for France the glory of 
Fontenoy. 

O'Reilly distinguished himself so much that the Mar- 
iitietl de Broglie recommended him to the King of Spain, 
with great warmth of expression, on his retiring to 
Madrid. The marshal's interest won him the rank of 
Lieutenant-Colonel, and as such he served in that wai- 
which conduced so little to the glory of Portugal, though 
favoured by the alliance of Britain. Nevertheless, O'Keillj 
found many opportunities for distinction at the head oi 
the light troops which were confided to him, and soon 
won the proud reputation of being one of Spain's most 
gallant otficers. He was now named Brigadier of the 
Armies of the King, with the post of aide TnajoQ'deTexer 
ti/*e. In these capacities he drilled the Spanish infantu'- 



236 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

according to the best system of tactics and exercise then 
practised in the British service. 

At the peace he was appointed Mariscal de Campo, 
and named Commandant en Seconde of Havannah, which 
was to be given up to Spain by the treaty of Fontain- 
bleau. On arriving there, he restored and strengthened 
the fortifications of the colony, and soon after returned to 
Spain, where the king named him Inspector-General of 
Infantry, and desired him to assist in the manoeuvres of a 
great camp, of which he gave him command. He then 
sent him to New Orleans, where the inhabitants had 
scarcely become accustomed to the Spanish yoke, and 
where the rigorous means employed by O'Reilly to subdue 
them gained him many enemies. The count returned 
again to Madrid, and was treated with every mark of 
favour by Charles III., who knew all his talents, capacity, 
and courage ; and could never forget that it was to the 
strong hand and stout heart of O'Reilly he owed his 
life during the fiery sedition at Madrid in 1765, when 
the people rose in arms. Every honour Charles co\ild 
bestow upon a foreigner was showered upon O'Reilly, 
who now gave the Spanish army (which was many yeai's 
behind every other in Europe in the march of progression 
and improvement) a new spirit, vigour, and impulse. In 
this task he was assisted by his brother-in-law, Francisco 
Xavier Castanos, afterwards Duke of Baylen, Captain- 
General of Estremadura, Old Castile, and Galicia, whom 
he took with him to Prussia when he visited that coun- 
try, like all the principal officers of Europe, to witness 
and examine the manoeuvres practised by the troops of 
the Great Frederick. 

In 1774, he obtained command of the expedition against 
Algiers. The great means of attack were entirely con- 
fided to him, and he sailed from the Spanish coast with a 
squadron of forty sail of the line and three hundred and 
fifty transports, carrying an army of thirty thousand 
men ; but this immense armament failed to achieve its 
object, and O'Reilly was compelled to bear away for 
Spain, humiliated and mortified, and landed his discom- 
fited troops at Barcelona, ou the 24th of August in the 



COUNTS o'reilly AND o'donnel, eto. 237 

same year.* Though this unfortunate result was much 
against his reputation as a general, it did not lessen his 
favour with the king, who placed him at the head of a 
military school which was established in Avila, at Puerto 
de Santa Maria, on the Adaga, in Old Castile. 

Soon after this, O'Reilly was named Captain-General of 
Andaluzia and Governor of Cadiz. In these important 
posts he displayed the talents of a skilful soldier and able 
administrator ; but he fell into complete disgrace on the 
death of Charles III., in 1788, and lived afterwards in a 
quiet retreat in Catalonia. Despite his many enemies at 
court, who rose into power with Charles TV., O'Reilly 
maintained his high military reputation in the Spanish 
army, and on the death of General Ricardos in 1794, the 
government knew of none so able as he to direct the 
war against the invasion of the French republican armies. 
He was accordingly named General of the Army of the 
Eastern Pyrenees, and was on his way to assume that 
high command when he was seized by a sudden illness, 
and died in his sixtieth year. 

O'Reilly was fortunate, perhaps, in escaping thus the 
misery caused to Spain by the mistakes of the Conde de 
la Union, and the misfortunes consequent to reverse and 
defeat. His =age would not have permitted him to sus- 
tain the fatigue of a war so active ; and though he was 
the instructor of Blake and others who were esteemed 
the best officers of the Spanish army, as a foreigner he 
liad many envious enemies, and all his ability as a soldier, 
i^ith the sweetness and insinuating flexibility of his man- 
ner, was no guarantee to him among such a people as the 
Spaniards, who are ever cool and averse to strangers. 

His pupil, Joachim Blake, afterwards Captain-General 
of Aragon and four other provinces, was the son of an 
eminent Irish merchant who had settled at Velez, near 
Malaga, and was descended from an ancient family in the 

• The reader will remember the mistake of Donna Julia, — 

*' Was it for this that General Count O'Reilly, 
Who took Algiers, declares I iised him vilely?" 

Don Juan, Canto k 



■238 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

coTiiity of Gal way. His mother was the daughter of ft 
wealthy Spanish banker named Joyes. 

At an early age young Blake manifested an ardent 
predilection for the profession of arms — a predilection 
inherent in his race, which had given Ireland many proofs 
of high valour during two centuries. While yet a boy 
he applied himself to the science of mathematics wdth 
great s access, and was soon appointed Superinten- 
dent of Cadets in the military school established by 
Oount O'E-eilly, at Puerto de Santa Maria. In 1773, 
Blake commenced his military career as a volunteer 
in the Regiment of America, for it has long been an 
established principle in the Spanish armies that candi- 
dates for commissions must learn the art of war in the 
ranks ; and for some years subsequent to this he served 
as lieutenant and adjutant to the battalion, so great was 
the progress he had made in his profession, and so inti- 
mate was his knowledge of regimental economy. At the 
beginning of the war waged by France against Spain, he 
was appointed Major of the Volunteers of Castile, without 
serving the intermediate rank of captain ; a favour never 
before granted to any officer, even to a Spaniai'd. In 
this capacity he led his battalion with distinguished bra- 
very during the campaigns of 1793 and 1794, in Rous- 
sillon and Catalonia, and was wounded when stoiming 
the heights of San Lorenzo de la Maga. He was 
appointed colonel in 1802, without passing through the 
grade of lieutenant- colonel, and obtained command of a 
newly-raised battalion, styled Los Volontarios de la Corona 
— the Volunteers of the Crown ; and from thenceforward 
he bore a prominent part in all the warlike and political 
broils of Spain. 

After the peace in 1802, Blake was made brigadier or 
Mariscal de Campo, by Charles IV., and on his volunteer 
regiment being numbered with the Spanish line, he was 
further confirmed in command of it. This position he 
occupied until the invasion of Spain by Bonaparte and 
the imprisonment of the king ; after which ensued the 
great contest known as the Peninsula War, during which, 
by the unanimous voice of the Galicians, he was sum- 



COUNTS o'eEILLY AND o'dONNEL, ETC. 239 

aioned to the cliief command of tLeir valuable a,nd ex- 
tensive province. 

During the second operations of Marshal Bessi^res 
(Duke of Istria) in Spain, the army of Blake — twenty- 
thousand strong — united with the ten thousand Castilian 
recruits of old Don Gregorio de la Cuesta, at Benevente 
in July, 1808, for the purpose of opposing liim ; but they 
soon disagreed ; for, contrary to the wishes of Blake, 
whose fiery energy consorted ill with the indolence of 
Ouesta, that ofiicer left a strong division to protect stores 
at Benevente, and led only twenty-five thousand infantry, 
a few hundred horse, and thirty pieces of cannon, towards 
Palencia, in the beautiful Tierra de Campos. Contrary 
to Ids judgment, a battle was risked (14th July, 1808) at 
Medina del Rio Seco, against the French under General 
LasoUes. 

There, on that day, so fatal to Spain, notwithstanding 
all the energy of Blake, General Lasolles, with fifteen 
thousand men and thirty cannon, routed the soldiers of 
Castile and Galicia, with the loss of seven thousand two 
hundred of their number, killed, wounded, or taken ; and 
the survivors fled with such absurd precipitation, that 
the French, in crossing the bed of the Sequillo in pursuit, 
and finding it dry and stony, exclaimed : " Diable ! 
Why, Spanish rivers run away, too !" 

The generals of the two Juntas separated in anger ; 
but Blake had discovered such talents in the lost battle, 
that he was ap})ointed Governor and Captain-General of 
the Kingdom of Galicia, and President of the Koyal 
Audience. 

He retreated towards the mountains, and Bessidres 
then entered the city of Leon. 

Meanwhile the Junta of that province and of Castile 
sided with Blake, to whom Marshal Bessieres sent twelve 
hundred of the prisoners taken at Rio Seco ; and believ- 
ing it to be a favourable opportunity to tamper with their 
leaders, he wrote urging them to obey the act of abdica- 
tion, and acknowledge Joseph Bonaparte, in whose name 
lie offered Blake high rank and honours if he would enter 
the French service, like Colonel O'Meara of the Irish 



240 THE CAVALIERS OF POilTUNE. 

Brigade, Clarke the Dae de Feltre, General Kilmaine, 
Marshal MacCarthy, and other Irishmen ; while to Cuesta 
he very liberally ottered the Yiceroyalty of Mexico ; but 
both the Spanish cavalier and the Irish soldier of fortune 
repelled his offers with disdain. 

On the 17th September the latter advanced against the 
enemy with six columns, each five thousand strong. De- 
scending from La Montana towards the Upper Ebro, he sent 
one division to menace the French in the Castle of Burgos, 
and turn the flank of Marshal Bessidres ; he left another 
at Villarcayo to preserve a communication with Revnosa 
and cover his retreat. He received supplies from General 
Broderick, who in his despatches complained bitterly 
that Blake treated him with hauteur, and declined to 
afford any information as to the nature of his intended 
operations. The French having abandoned Bilbao, it 
was regarrisoned by Marshal Ney ; and after various 
evolutions, it was attacked on the 12th October by Blake, 
at the head of eighteen thousand men. Merlin, with 
three thousand French, abandoned the fortress and 
retreated, fighting every foot of the way until he reached 
Zornosa, where he was succoured by General Yerdier, 
who checked the fury of Blake's pursuit. The winter 
was now approaching, and his troops began to be in 
want. Seldom have soldiers endured greater privations 
than those suffered by the poor Spaniards of Blake. 
They were destitute of caps, boots, and stockings, and 
had been constantly in the open air for months, without 
tents or proper food ; yet not a murmur escaped them, 
nor a wish was uttered but to conquer for their country. 

While the well appointed forces of France were hourly 
increasing, Blake, fearing neither difficulty nor danger, 
boldly ascended the valley of El Darongo to assail two 
divisions of the Fourth corps (Lefebre, Duke of Dantzig's), 
which occupied the neighbouring villages. Full of hope, 
he advanced, and anticipating, if successful, to capture 
Marshal Ney's corps of sixteen thousand men, fearlessly, 
with only eighteen thousand Spaniards, and almost with- 
out artillery, he hastened to engage twenty-five thousand 
Frenchmen of all anng 1 



COU^'TS O'REILLY AND O'DONNEL, ETC. 241 

Favonred by a dense mist, the Spaniards entered the 
valley, and for a time notliing was heard but the shots of 
their skirmishers ringing between the mountain peaks, 
till Vilatte's corps suddenly fell on Blake's vanguard, and 
hurled it back upon the third division at the bayonet's 
point. Then, on came the dark columns of Se})astiani 
and Laval, each looming in succession through the mist, 
while a fire of round and grape-shot from their artillery 
(to which Blake could not reply) swept through the 
rocky vale, heaping his ranks against each other, and 
strewing them on the grass. 

Madly and bravely Blake, with his infantry and Gue- 
rillas, sought to defend every rock and pass of the valley ; 
but they were driven back in full flight towards Bilbao, 
and crossing the Salcedon, took up a position at Nava, 
watched by seven thousand French under Vilatte. 

After the battle of Gamonal, Soult resolved to make 
an effort for ever to cut off Blake, who, without cavalry, 
clothing, or food, had reached Espinosa with six divisions 
and only six pieces of cannon, which he posted in rear of 
the town at Aguilar del Canipo. He had now only 
twenty-five thousand bayonets, but strongly and skilfully 
posted. His left wing, composed of Asturians, and his 
old favourite division occupied the heights above the road 
to St. Audero ; another covered the road to Reynosa, and 
Romano's soldiers filled a wood two miles in his front. 

He was attacked at two o'clock on the 10th November 
by Marshal Victor, whose soldiers carried the wood at 
the point of the bayonet, forced his centre, turned his 
left flank, and he had the mortification to see San Romano 
and Don Luiz de Riquelme, his two best brigadiers, fall 
mortally wounded. His Spaniards were hurled in masses 
upon each other, and utterly routed. Romano's corps 
were all taken to a man ; the rest fled through Castile, 
Leon, Galicia, and Asturia, carrying everywhere the 
tidings of their defeat and the terror of the French name ; 
and }A)or Blake, jaded, weary, exasperated, and dis- 
heartt'ut'd, reached Reynosa on the 1 2th, with only seven 
thous; Mil men— his old division — without artillery, with- 
out ai 11I&, without spirit, and without hope ! 

Jl 



242 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

Such was the battle of Espinosa. Blake, in this ter- 
nble condition, was attacked by the vanguard of Soult, 
and after losing two thousand men, retired through the 
vale of Caburniego, and reached Arnedo in the heart of 
the Asturian Sierras. 

Spain was now nearly prostrate at the feet oi 
France ! 

In 1809, Blake was appointed Captain-General of the 
Coronilla, or Lesser Crown ; a title given to the union of 
Valencia, Aragon, and Catalonia. In the latter he suC' 
ceeded General Romano. Gathering his forces in April, 
restless and indefatigable, he advanced to Alcanitz, from 
whence the French retired to Samper and Ixar. On 
this Marshal Suchet advanced against him with the third 
corps, and on the 23rd of May they fought the battle of 
Alcanitz. 

Blake was skilfully posted in front of the town with 
twelve thousand men. The bridge of Guadaloupe was 
in his rear ; a pool of water covered his left, but his right 
was without protection ; his centre occupied a hill. With 
only eight thousand foot and seven hundred horse Suchet 
attacked him, but without success. Rendered desperate 
by reverses, the Spaniards stood firm, and fought w^ith 
their ancient rather than their modern bravery. Suchet 
was wounded and compelled to retreat ; this retreat 
became a panic, and in great confusion the French reached 
Samper in the night. This small success was a cause for 
rejoicing all over Spain. " The victory at Alcanitz," was 
in every man's mouth, and the Supreme Junta gave 
Blake an estate, and added the ancient kingdom of Murcia 
to his command. He now hoped to recover the far-famed 
Zai'agossa, and turning all his thoughts to Aragon, neg- 
lected the defence of Catalonia. 

After the late victory bis little army was augmented 
bymore than twenty thousand men, and full of new hope 
.and enthusiasm he marched with these to Ixar and 
Samper. 

Suchet hovered near Zaragossa, but left a column 
under General Faber at Villa Muol, near the Sierra of 
Daroca, to watch Blake, who, hoping to cut that officer 



COLNTS o'eEILLY AXD o'dOXX^EL, ETC. 2 i3 

off, marclied througli Carinena, so famed for its vine- 
yards, and sent General Arisayo with a detachment to 
Bottorio, with orders to capture a convoy of French pro- 
visions on the Huerba, This movement was successful, 
and lack of food forced Faber to retreat towards Plas- 
cencia. 

The advanced guards exchanged shots on the 14th of 
June at Bottorio, and Blake, full of confidence, made a 
vigorous attempt to surround the French by pushing a 
column to Maria on the plains of Zaragossa ; on the 15th 
he formed his troops in order of battle, but slowly and 
unskilfully, as they were raw soldiers, who had but re- 
cently relinquished the vinedresser's knife for the musket 
and sword. Occupying both banks of the Huerba, 
tow^ards 2 p.m. he extended his left flank to overlap the 
French right ; but Suchet, who was unexpectedly joined 
by Faber's Wigade and another from Tudela, paralysed 
tlie movement by a furious attack of cavalry and vol- 
tigeurs. Blake's left fell back at the very moment that 
he was triumphantly leading on his centre, and he 
became involved in a desperate sword-in-hand conflict, in 
which the leading columns of Sachet were repulsed. He 
would have achieved more but for a violent storm which 
arose at that moment, and so darkened the air that the 
adverse lines could scarcely see each other, and for a time 
the action ceased. Blake's position was ill chosen (ac- 
cording to the memoirs of Suchet) ; he was surrounded 
by deep ravines, and had only one line of retreat by the 
bridge of Maria, which crossed the Huerba near his right 
wing. 

Marshal Suchet observed this error, and on the storm 
lulling, selected some cavalry and two regiments of in- 
fantry, and forming them, all drenched as they were by 
rain, in solid column, by a vigorous effort he broke 
through Blake's brigade of horse, siezed the bridge, and 
cut off his retreat ! 

Undaunted by this fatal event, Blake, at all times 

brave and decided, formed his infantry of the left and 

centre into solid masses, and fought desperately for victory; 

but was repulsed with great loss, and defeated, leaving 

b2 



244 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

one general, twenty-five guns, and many colon re on tliat 
rough and rocky field, from which he was driven about 
dusk, when the darkness was so dense that few prisoners 
were taken. Suchet had Harispe wounded and a thou- 
sand men slain. 

Favoured by the obscurity of the night, Blake's men 
fled by the ravines to Bottorio, where he made incredible 
effbi*ts to rally and remodel them next day. Then he 
received tidings that a French brigade, under Laval, was 
marching by the Ebro to cut off his retreat. To anticipate 
this movement Blake fell back on the night of the 1 6tli, 
and after skirmishing with Suchet next day at Torrecilla, 
again formed line of battle on the 18th, to meet him at 
Belchite, . a small town in Aragon. Blake had on this 
day only fourteen thousand men, dispirited by recent 
repulse and the loss of nearly all their artillery. Suchet 
had twenty-two battalions and seven squadrons, with a 
fine artillery corps, all flushed by recent success, and 
making fifteen thousand men ; thus the result may be 
anticipated — a defeat ! 

He had four thousand of his men taken, with the re- 
mainder of his artillery, all his baggage and ammunition. 
He had many difficulties to contend with as leader of an 
undisciplined army, and stung to the soul by this second 
defeat, he reproached the Spaniards with great bitterness 
Bs shameless cowards ; and, after demanding an inquir\' 
into his own conduct, " with a strong and sincere emotion 
^f honour," restored to the Junta the estate which had 
been conferred upon him after the victorious battle ol 
Alcanitz. 

Following up the victory of Belchite, Marshal Suchet 
sent detachments as far as Morella on the Valencian 
frontier ; but no man in arms appeared to meet them, 
for Blake's dispersion was signal and complete. His 
march towards Zaragossa, and his attempt to wrest 
Aragon from the foe, were fatal to the Spanish cause in 
Catalonia, where St. Cyr, with more than forty thousand 
men, occu[)ied the country between Figueras and the city 
4>{ Gerona, which was blockaded by eighteen thousand 
Frenchmen, who pressed with vigour one of the most 



COUNTS O'REILLY AND o'dONNEL, ETC. 245 

memorable sieges suffered by this ancient ducal city, which 
was bravely defended by its intrepid Catalans. Blake 
was ordered by the central Junta of Seville to succour 
them, as the gari-ison were defending half-ruined walls 
with a valour and obstinacy which filled the city with 
thousand scenes of horror and distress. He marched 
accordingly at the head of a weak and irregular force, 
Avhich was thoroughly dispirited by the result of the two 
last battles ; and thus he resolved to confine his operations 
simply to supplying the town with men and provisions,^ 
rather than risk his strength by attempting to raise a 
siege which, if essayed with success, would save Gerona, 
and with it all Catalonia. 

Collecting two thousand mules laden with flour, he 
sent them with four thousand foot and five hundred 
horse, under Henry O'Donnel and Garcia Conde, towards 
this strong and picturesque little city, which they reached 
after a furious encounter with the enemy during a dark 
and stormy night ; but the provisions received did not 
amount to much more than eight days' food for the 
starving Geronese and their garrison, which was encum 
bered rather than aided by Garcia Condi's reinforcement^ 
St. Cyr now resolved to seek out Blake and destroy him 
for ever ; but rendered wary by misfortune, he retired 
into the mountains, and thus ended his first attempt to 
relieve the city of Gerona. 

Soon after, still hovering near the French, and threat- 
ening them, he advanced to the position of St. Hilario ; 
and on St. Cyr preparing to storm the post called Calvary, 
Blake, from the 20th to the 25th of September, 1809, 
made movements as if he meant to force the blockade ; 
but being incapable of doing so, his whole object was 
merely to introduce another convoy ; and, watching an 
opportunity, while drawing the attention of St. Cyr 
towards the heights of San Sadurnia, on which he had 
posted a column, he sent 10,000 men under Wimphen 
towards Gerona. O'Donnel led the vanguard. A dread- 
ful contiict took place on Wimphen's attempting to force 
the French lines. He was defeated ; and in the twilight 
Blake failed to succour him ; but Henry O'Donnel, another 



246 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUjSTE. 

gallant Insli soldier of fortune, succeeded in hewing a 
passage into Gerona with 1000 men and 200 laden mules. 
Iri'itated by Blake's second attempt to succour Gerona, 
St. Cyr marched a column to menace his commimication 
with the citadel of Hostalric, a depot of magazines on 
the Tordeiu. On this he was forced to retreat, leaving 
to its fate the noble little city of Gerona, which, as its 
heroic captain, General Alvarez, said, " if not succoured 
again by all Catalonia, will soon be but a heap of carcases 
and r^^ms." 

Again, on the 29th October, \ye find the unwearied 
Blake hovering on the heights of Brunola, watching the 
siege of Gerona, and while he was thus occupied, Hostal- 
ric was stormed by the French, and 2000 Spaniards, with 
all his magazines, were taken therein. On the 10th 
November Gerona capitulated, and Alvarez, its brave and 
veteran governor, died of a broken heart at Figueras, 
when on the march towards France, a prisoner of war. 
Blake now retired to Tarragona, leaving the remains of 
his army under Heniy O'Donnel, who drove Marshal 
Augereau into Gerona;, and received command of the 
troops at Yich, on Blake being called into Andalusia. 

In May the seaport of TaiTagona was besieged, taken, 
and sacked by Suchet, in a manner discreditable alike to 
his talents as a soldier and his humanity as a man. 
During the horrors of that afiair, which covered the French 
with infamy, Blake was in Valencia, having sailed for 
that province on the 16 th of May, in search for succour ; 
but Tarragona was lost, and then he assumed command 
of the Murcian army, which was 22,000 strong, and had 
remained inactive ever since General O'Mahy's appoint- 
ment. In June, 1811, the firmness and activity of 
Wellington formed a strong contrast to the wavering and 
indolent demeanour of the Spanish generals, until Blake 
marched to Condado de Niebla, on concerting a movement 
down the right bank of the Guadiana with the British 
general, who delivered to him the pontoons lately used at 
Badajoz. He marched on the 18th, crossed the Guadiana 
on the 22nd, at the ancient town of Mertola, where the 
stream firat becomes navigable : but halted at Castil legos 



COUNTS o'rEILLY AND o'dONNEL, ETC. ^47 

on the 30tli, and sent liis siege train to Ayamonte by 
water. Then, instead of moving his whole force directly 
on the great city of Seville, he sent only a small column 
of cavalry, under the gallant Oonde de Penne Viilamur, 
in that direction ; and, unfortunately, consumed two 
entire days in besieging the castle of Niebla — a small 
fortress, which gave the title of count to the eldest son oi 
the Duke of Medina, and was garrisoned by 300 Swiss, 
who had deserted from the Spanish army at the com- 
mencement of the war, and whom he was most anxious 
to capture and punish. The absence of his siege train 
rendered the attack futile ; and Soult, on hearing of it^ 
sent a detachment from Monasterio to relieve the Swiss, 
who defended themselves with great valour, while General 
Conraux crossed the mountains by the Aracena road, to 
cut off all communication between Blake and his artillery 
at Ayamonte. Thus he was compelled to abandon the 
siege, and by a precipitate march reach a pontoon bridge 
which was thrown across the stream for him by Colonel 
Austin at San Lucar de Guadiana, from whence he took 
shelter in Portugal. 

Still indefatigable, he projected an assault upon San 
Lucar de Earameda ; but the sudden appearance of Soult'i 
advanced guard disconcerted his troops, who retreated to 
Ayamonte, and from thence to the Isle of Camelas, where 
a Spanish frigate and 300 transports fortunately arrived 
in time to afford him the means of escape. Early in July 
he embarked all his troops, and sailed to Cadiz, as the 
French had reinforced San Lucar and taken possession of 
Ayamonte. 

Landing at Almeria, Blake formed a junction with 
Freire, and proposed to invest Granada ; but deeming it 
necessary first to visit Valencia, where the factious Mar- 
quis del Palacio was acting most unwisely, he left his 
army, now 27,000 strong, under Freire, and before he 
tould return it had utterly dispersed ! 

After the rout of the Murcians at Baza in Granada, h© 
rallied the fugitives, and in virtue of his authority as 
regent assumed the chief direction of the war in Yalencia, 
where his noble efforts wei-e nearly rendered futile by the 



248 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

villany of Palacio's faction, who opposed him and en» 
deavonred to detach the soldiers and people from liia 
authority, and proposed to inundate the plains that lie 
round the black marble mountain of Murviedro ; but on 
Suchet invading the province, Blake concentrated his ill- 
armed and undisciplined but brave horde of peasantry to 
meet him. Exclusive of 5000 infantry and 700 Murcian 
horsemen, under O'Mahy, at Cuenga, and 2000 men under 
Bassecour at Rigiiena, in September, he had 20,000 foot 
and 2000 horse ; but, as a foreigner by name and race, he 
was unpopular both in Murcia and Valencia, " and the 
regency of which he formed a part was tottering," adds 
General Napier, in the fourth volume of his history. '• The 
Cortes had quashed O'Mahy's command of the Murcian 
army, and even recalled Blake himself; but the order, 
which did not reach him until he was engaged with 
Suchet, was not obeyed. Meanwhile that part of the 
Murcian army which should have formed a reserve after 
O'Mahy's division had marched for Cuenga, fell into 
the greatest disorder ; above 8000 men deserted in a 
few weeks, and those who remained were exceedingly 
dispirited." 

Suchet's army entered in three columns, passed Cas- 
tellon de la Plana, masked Pensicola, invested Oropesa, and 
skirmished at Almansora, where a few French, by bravely 
routing a great body of Spaniards, made Blake doubt 
seriously the firmness of his troops ; and thus leaving four 
thousand men under O'Donnel at Segorbe, he retired be- 
yond the Guadalquiver, leaving Valencia in confusion, 
Suchet then invested the town of Saguntum, and again 
turning all his attention to destroy Blake, after much 
manoeuvring, they fought their disastrous battle of the 
25th October, 1811. 

On the level and fertile plain whicli lies between Mur- 
viedro and Valencia, and is intersected by torrents and 
ravines, fringed by olive-trees, Suchet drew out his lines 
of battle before the ramparts of Saguntum, where Blake 
was defeated, with the loss of 5000 men ; and on the Em • 
peror Napoleon reinforcing Suchet with 15.000 men, 
under General Reillc (a Keilly of Irish paientage), the 



COUNTS O'REILLY AND o'dONNEL, ETC. 249 

position of Blake and liis Andalusians became more than 
ever desperate. 

He had now fought ^t'e pitched battles as a general, and 
had under his command 22,000 foot and 3000 horse. In 
November, Suchet advanced towards the Guadalquiver 
with a force diminished to 18,000 men by garrisons and 
detachments. Though Blake had destroyed two of the 
bridges, and manned the houses, and was in hourly expec- 
tation of a genei-al rising of the Valencians, the French 
fearlessly stormed his defences, crossed the river, menaced 
his front, and harassed his rear, until he was compelled 
to form an intrenched camp five miles in extent, enclosing 
the city of Valencia and three of its suburbs. A twelve- 
feet ditch surrounded this camp, the slope of which was 
so high as to require ladders. 

The battle of Valencia, fought in December, 1811, fol- 
lowed. O'Mahy was defeated, and fled to Alcira, leaving 
Blake blocked up in the fortified camp with eighteen 
thousand men in want of provisions, while the French 
were well and freely supplied by the Valencians, who, as 
Blake reports, "were a bad people." On the 2nd De- 
cember he made a bold effort to break through Suchet's 
lines, and sallied out at the head of ten thousand men ; 
but was repulsed, and Suchet pushed more vigorously 
than ever the siege of the city, knowing well that it was 
impossible for Blake to remain long in a camp which 
included a starving population of fifty thousand souls. 
The fire of sixty great guns drove Blake into the city, 
abandoning his camp on the 5th December to the foe, 
who found in it eighty pieces of cannon. In the evening 
Suchet summoned Valencia ; but Blake declined to yield. 
Then skirmishes, assaults, and bombarding continued till 
the 9th, when the citizens were on the point of insurging 
against Blake, and insisted that he should surrender. 
He complained bitterly of their cowardice, and required 
leave to march with his soldiers to Alicant with their 
baggage, colours, and only four pieces of cannon. 

These terms were refused him. 

The Valencians opened their gates, and the brave but 
unfortunate Blake was compelled to surrender his sword, 



'250 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

and marcli out at the head of twenty- two generals, eight 
hundred and ninety-three other officers, and eighteen 
thousand men, as prisoners of war ; leaving in the hands 
of the enemy eighty stand of colours, two thousand 
hoi-ses, three hundred and ninety pieces of cannon, forty 
thousand stand of arms, one hundred and eighty thousand 
pounds of powder, and three millions of ball-cartridges, 
wj-^h a vast store of other warlike munition. 

After the fall of Valencia he had no oppoi-tunity of 
achieving anything of importance ; and in May, 1812, the 
Regent Charles O'Donnel, Conde de Abispal, bestowed 
the command of the Valencian forces upon his own 
brother Joseph, who rallied at Alicant the I'emains of 
Blake's army, four thousand of whom escaped from 
Suchet's guards. 

For his last important capture, Suchet was created 
Duke of Albufera ; and poor Blake, as a prisoner of war 
too important to be exchanged, was ordered into France 
■with his two aides-de-camp. 

The preceding has been but a brief outline of the 
career, services, and struggles of Blake, whose popu- 
larity, by a combination of circumstances over which 
he had no control, was almost destroyed for ever in 
Spain. 

He was accompanied to the Spanish frontier by the 
Adjutant-General Florestan Pipi, who was then sent to 
Naples. On entering France he was sent to Paris, and 
from thence to the strong Chateau de Yincennes, where 
he remained a close prisoner until the fall of the Imperial 
Government ; but this captivity did not prevent the 
Cortes from appointing him a Counsellor of State when 
naming the regency. The triumph of the allies having- 
broken his fetters in 1814, after receiving many. marks ot 
favour from the Emperor Alexander, he returned into 
Spain under the ministry of Ballasteros, and was ap- 
pointed Director-General of the Coi*ps of Engineers. He 
occupied this honourable post until the revolution of 1820. 
when, in exchange, he received a seat in the Council ot 
State. When war was threatened between France and 
Spain in 1823 he was appointed, on the 7th February, 



COUNTS O'REILLY AND O'DONNEL. ETC. 251 

one of the committee of five generals who were ordered 
to concert measures for defending the kingdom. In the 
French army which entered Spain in that year, under the 
Marquis of Lauriston (an officer of Scottish parentage), 
we find two lieutenant-generals of Irish descent — Count 
Bourke and Yiscount O'Donoughue ; the Duke of An- 
gouleme was General-in-Chief, and to him, the Duke of 
Berwick and Alba, a Spanish grandee of the Stuart blood, 
gave his adherence. The restora.tion caused by the French 
intervention under the Marshal Lauriston was fatal to 
Blake ; for being suspected by the royalists of constitu- 
tional principles, he was only able to avoid prosecution 
by great care and solicitude : but his career was drawing 
to a close, as he died at Valladolid in 1827, regretted by 
all the Spanish army, and eulogized by the people in 
their songs and stories of " the War of Independence." 

The military men who had borne arms under him, 
says a French writer, recognised and admitted his positive 
talent, his great knowledge and perspicacity of tactiques ; 
but agreed that he failed in two essential points — the 
prompt coup cVoe.il which decides at once the fortune of a 
battle, and that art of manner by which it is necessary 
to excite the enthusiasm of the soldier. 

A distinguished branch of the old Celtic sept of 
O'DoNNEL has borne a prominent part in the Spanish 
annals during the last fifty years ; but so early as tho 
days of Philip of Anjou and Charles of Spain, we find 
an O'Donnel fighting in the ranks of their armies. 

Soon after the accession of James YI. to the English 
throne, he was engaged in the last struggle of the Crown 
against the houses of O'Donnel and O'Neil. An earldom 
was bestowed as a peace-offering upon the chief of the 
former ; but his plots against the king soon deprived him 
of it : his estates were seized, an English colony planted in 
the land of his tribe, and he fled to the Court of Spain, 
between which and the Irish there had been a close con- 
nexion during the animosity of Philip II. and Elizabeth. 
He was welcomed with all the honours of a Castilian 
l^randee, and attained a high rank under King Charles. 



f52 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

Eighty years after tLis we find his descendant, Baldearg 
O'Donnel, still remembering the days when the chiefs, or 
petty princes of his race, were solemnly inaugurated as 
the successors of St. Columba on the Kock of Kihna- 
crenan. He resigned his commission in the service o£ 
Philip Y., of whom he begged permission to join the 
Irioh, then in arms against William of Orange. Philip 
refused ; but the O'Donnel fled by a route so circuitous 
that he visited Turkey, and after enduring many priva- 
tions, landed at Kinsale in 1690, where seven thousand 
armed Ulster-men hailed him with joy, as the Red 
O'Donnel of an ancient Celtic prophecy. 

From Baldearg O'Donnel is descended General Count 
O'Donnel, who commanded the army of Maria Theresa 
on the fall of Count Lacy at the great battle of Toorgaii 
in 1761 ; and also General O'Donnel, Vice-Governor of 
Lombardy, who was attacked by the Milanese during the 
Austrian revolution of 1848, when his palace was stormed 
and himself taken prisoner. There was also a Count 
O'Donnel in the Hungarian service, who died at Brussels 
in 1767, after reaching the patriarchal age of one hun- 
dred and two years. 

Of this ancient Celtic family there are now, or were lately, 
four general officers of the highest rank in the service of 
Great Britain, Spain, Austria, and America ; but of these 
the most distinguished is Leopold O'Donnel, Conde dc 
Lucena and Marshal in the service of Donna Isabella 11. 

The four O'Donnels, Henry, Charles, Joseph, and Alex- 
ander, who attained such distinction in Spain during the 
Peninsula War, were the sons of Irish gentlemen who 
einigrated to that country during the latter end of the 
last century ; and of their services and honours our limits 
will allow but a brief outline ; while General Sai-sfield, 
Colonel O'Ronan, A.D.C. to the Marquis de Campo 
Verde, or such partisan soldiers as MacDonel, the unfor- 
tunate Guerilla chief who fell in action, Captain Flinter 
the Christino, or General O'Doyle and his brother, a 
captain, who were taken prisoners at the last battle of 
Yittoria, and shot in cold blood by Zumalacarregui, cau 
only be indicated here by name. 



COUNTS OREILLY AND o'dONNEL^ ETC. 253 

Chaeles (afterwards) Count O'Donnel first became 
known to history in 1810, when commanding at Albu- 
querque, from whence, on the 14th March, he made a 
vigorous attempt to surprise General For, but was driven 
into Casceres. Marching towards the ancient city of 
Merida on the 2nd April, he drove back General Regnier 
and made an attempt to surprise Truxillo (the birth- 
place of Pizarro), which is situated on a mountain. Here 
he was repulsed, and with difficulty effected a retreat to 
Albuquerque ; but three months after we find him at 
Truxillo again, co-operating with Don Carlos de Espana, 
with whom he cut off the French at Rio Monte. In 
May he had lent two thousand infantry and two 
hundred cannoneers to Blake, to enable that officer 
to conduct the siege of Tarragona, receiving in return 
from Captain Codrington two thousand British muskets 
to equip a new levy. He allowed four thousand of 
his best Yalencians to embark with Miranda to fight 
at Tarragona, but not until he received a pledge that 
the British would bring back all who survived the 
siege. 

Charles served long with Blake, and was in most ot 
the battles just recounted ; thus, to rehearse his earlier 
services would be to enumerate those of Blake a second 
time. 

In September, 1811, when the latter v'as forced to 
retire beyond the Guadalaviar, he left Charles O'Donnel 
with four thousand men on the side of Segorbe ; and on 
investing Saguntum in October, he sent him with Villa 
Campo's division and San Juan's cavalry to Betera. 
There O'Donnel was attacked by Harispe, though well 
posted in rear of a canal, and having his centre protected 
by a chapel and some houses ; but the French advanced 
with such fury, that the Spaniards were swept away by 
the first fire. 

In the war of 1823, General O'Donnel commanded a 
corps of Royalists, which were destroyed by the troops of 
Torr;J*«>*, the Constitutionalist ; and soon after, his wife, 
the v^ondesa de O'Donnel, had a narrow escape from a 
party oi" the Empecinado, who were sent to Valladolid to 



254 THE CAVALIERS OF TORTUXE. 

take hei' prisoner, but were repulsed by the troops of the 
Marshal Duke of E,eggio. 

Charles O'Donnel was now Captain-General of Old 
Castile, and as such, in the month of August, he sum- 
moned and took from its insurgent garrison, under 
General Jalon, the citadel of Ciudad Kodrigo. By the 
convention between them, it appears that the governor of 
the fortress undertook to obey any orders he might re- 
ceive dii'ect from the king ; but displayed great distrust 
of the royalists and the Irish commander. After this, 
the latter marched into Estremadura, everywhere crushing 
the Constitutionalists, and enforcing the supremacy of the 
King. In August his head-quarters were at Salamanca, 
and in October at Algesiras. This war, in which the 
absolute power of Ferdinand was fatally enforced by the 
bayonets of France under Marshal Lauriston, the Duke 
of Keggio, and others, soon ended ; but though smothered 
for a time, the restless spirit of the Spaniards soon again 
broke forth into a flame, and most fatally for the house 
of O'Donnel, as shall be shown in the sequel. 

Joseph O'Donnel, who had been serving with his bro- 
thers against the common enemy, was appointed by the 
regent, the Conde de Abispal, to succeed Blake in com- 
mand of the Murcians and Valencians in May, 1812. 
He collected the remains of these two armies, remodelled 
them with great energy, raised new levies, and during the 
illness of Marshal Suchet mustered fourteen thousand 
men in the neighbourhood of Alicant. 

These operations, with others in Catalonia, brought on 
the battle of Castalla in July, when, with 6000 foot, 700 
horse, and eight guns, he fought General Harispe on the 
mountains; but on the rough pathway and a narrow 
bridge near Biar, the Spanish infantry were borne down 
by the weight and fury of the French cuirassiers, and 
tbrced to retreat, leaving 3000 slain on the field. O'Don- 
nel, who had made incredible exertions to gain the day, 
and had fired two pieces of cannon at the bridge with his 
own hands, attributed his defeat to the disobedience and 
inability of San Estevan, who commanded his c«\valry, and 



COUNTS o'reilly and o'donnel, etc. 255 

who, by holding that force aloof, took no share in the 
battle. Pursued by the French cuirassiers, Joseph fled 
by the JumelJa road, and reached the city of Murcia, 
where he was joined by General Maitland's armament 
from Sicily, and thus saved from destruction ; but he 
unwisely required that officer to abstain from all requisi- 
tions for forage and rations from the neighbouring coun- 
try. Maitland assented, and immediately sank under the 
unnecessary difficulties thus created. In August, when 
O'Donnel was at Yecla with 6000 men, the Cortes passed 
a severe censure upon him for his conduct at the battle of 
Castalla ; so severe, indeed, that his brother, the Conde 
de Abispal, a proud and haughty soldier, resigned his 
liigh command during the campaign, which ended in 
Wellington's retreat from Burgos ; and then the weak- 
ness of the Spanish Government became more than ever 
apparent. 

On the 6th of December, when at Malaga, Joseph 
wrote a long letter to General Donkin, concerning the 
malheur at Castalla, in which we find his knowledge of 
English so imperfect that he was obliged, after a dozen of 
lines, to adopt and end it in French ; and after this un- 
fortunate defeat we hear no more of him. 

Alexander O'Donnel, the third brother, was colonel 
of a regiment of Spanish infantry, and served with it in 
the Danish Isles under Romana. Attacked there by 
overwhelming numbers, they effiicted their escape in 1808 ; 
but on being made captives at Espinosa, they entered the 
French ranks to the number of 4500, and served in 
Napoleon's Continental war, until they w^re all taken 
prisoners by the Russians on the retreat from Moscow, 
when they were brought back to Spain in British ships, 
under the care of Captain Hill of the Royal Navy. One 
of the Spanish corps which returned after this strange 
career of military service was the regiment of Don 
Alexander O'Donnel, which had been fully equipped by- 
the Emperor Alexander in 1812, and for which the 
daughter of General Betancourt embroidered a pair of 
colours. It was styled the hnperial Alexander ReginieiU, 



%5Q THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

and under O'JDonnel distinguished itself in the national 
cause till after the disasters of 1823. 

Henry O'Donnel, Conde de Abispal, who, like his 
brother, had been serving with success and distinction in 
the battles of the Peninsula, was a brave, reckless, and 
determined soldier, possessed of military talents of a very- 
high order, together with a heedlessness of his own life 
and of the lives of others. Passing, with honour to him- 
self, through all the subaltern ranks, he was a colonel of 
Spanish infantry in 1809, when Blake ordered him to 
command in the attack upon Sauham's posts near Bru- 
nola, where, on the 31st August, he had the mortification 
of seeing the place retaken, after he had carried it at the 
point of the bayonet. 

On the 26th September, as related in the memoir of 
Blake, he led the advanced guard in the brilliant attempt 
to relieve Gerona. On the 1 3th October he broke out of 
the city, sword in hand, hewed a passage through the 
French blockade, and, falling on Sauham's quarters sabre 
ct la main, forced that general to fly in his shirt, and suc- 
cessfully achieved one of the most daring enterprises of 
that memorable siege. In 1810, on succeeding Blake in 
command of the Catalonians — an appointment bestowed 
by the provincial Junta, who heard of his high reputa- 
tion — he attacked Marshal Augereau with great fury, 
and drove him into Gerona. He took up a position at 
Vich, but on the approach of the French retired to the 
Col de Sespina, where he led a charge so fierce and deci- 
sive, that Sauham's battalions were hurled from the hills 
in confusion upon the plain. Marching to Manresa, he 
summoned the Miguelets from Lerida to his colours. 
These were a species of banditti who infested the moun- 
tains, and were armed with pistols, daggers, and blunder- 
busses. With 12,000 men, Henry O'Donnel took up a 
position at Maya in February, and harassed the French 
before Vich, where he fought and lost a severe battle, 
and was forced to retreat to the Sierras, and from thence 
to Tarragona, leaving a fourth of his men dead on the 
ticld 



COUNTS o'eEILLY AND o'dOXNEL, ETC. 257 

i O'Dounel, " wlic-se energy and military talents/' saya 
JS^apier, '• were superior to all his predecessors," now sent 
Ca-ro with 6000 men against the French at Villa Franca, 
where unfortunately they were all killed or captured; 
and being wounded, he was compelled for a time to rcsiga 
tlic^ command to General Gasca. 

On the Gth April, lie harassed the FreiK3h, then re^ 
treating from Tarragona towards Barcelona ; and after- 
retiring from Yicli with an army discomfited by only 
^000 Frenchmen, with the same discomfited men ha 
baffled Augereau, who led 20,000 bayonets ; forced liiia 
to abandon Lower Catalonia, and to retreat in disgrace 
to Gerona, where INIarshal Macdonald, a Scotsman, was 
sent by Napoleon to succeed him. During the invest- 
ment of Hostalric by the French, Henry O'Donnel col- 
lected many convoys for its relief; he attacked the 
blockade at several points with the Miguel ets, and par- 
ticularly distinguished himself in a noble and dashing 
attempt to relieve the brave Julian Estrada, on the night 
of the 12th May, when this strong citadel fell. During: 
the siege of Lerida by Suchet, O'Donnel collected two 
divisions of 4000 each ; with these and 600 cavalry he> 
slcilfally passed the defile of Momblanch, and fought the^ 
contest of Margalef, where his troops were defeated ; but 
he rallied, and led them again upon the columns of the 
Due d'Albufera. The struggle was terrible; but he was 
forced to retreat through the passes, leaving one general, 
eight colonels, 5000 men, and three guns in the hands of 
the foe. His force was now 1400 strong, well supplietl 
by the active Miguelets ; and by the bravery of his 
soldiers and his own unwearying zeal he long prevented 
the siege of Tortoza, and found full employment for the 
enemy during the remainder of the year. 

•' After the battle of Margalef, Henry O'Donnel re- 
united his forces, and being of a stern, unyielding dis- 
position, not only repressed the discontents occa- 
sioned by that defeat, but forced the reluctant (and 
lawless) Miguelets to supply his ranks and submit to 
discipline." Thus, in July he had twenty-two thou- 
sand men when Marshals Macdonald and Suchet 

8 



258 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

combined to crush liim, and when Napoleon's order to 
invest Tortoza arrived. On this O'Donnel, after making 
a skilful feint towards Trivisa, suddenly threw himself 
"with ten thousand men into the fated city, from whence, 
upon the noon of the 3rd July, he fell furiously upon 
the French entrenchments, and made a fearful slaughter 
of the troops of Laval. After this he retired to Tarra- 
gona. Having cut off Macdonald's communication with 
the walled city of Ampurias, he now conceived and ex- 
ecuted the most skilful and vigorous plan which had yet 
graced the Spanish arms. 

Leaving Campo Yerde in the valley of Aro, on the Hth, 
lie marched rapidly down from Casa de Silva upon Abis- 
pal, where the French, under Swartz, were entrenched. 
He attacked them, slew two hundred, and, taking the 
Test, embarked them for Tarragona, whither he retired 
soon after, to take a little repose, being troubled by his 
last wound; yet in January, 1811, we find him again in 
^rms, directing the movements of the army, and harassing 
Marshals Macdonald and Suchet, though unable to ride 
or appear in the field ; and on his being created Conde 
•de Abispal, he resigned the command of his Catalonians, 
three thousand in number, to Campo Verde, being so dis- 
abled by woundd that he was quite unable to conduct the 
«iege of Tortoza. 

In October, 1812, he was appointed to that situation, 
■which several Irish soldiers of fortune have held — Cap- 
tain-General of Andalusia, — and on \yellington reaching 
•Oadiz in December of that year, after the retreat from 
Burgos, on his making a complete reorganization of the 
Spanish forces, the first reserve corps was given to the 
■Oonde de Abispal, and the second reserve to Lacy. 
Thus they both served in the new campaign which ended 
,80 gloriously on the field of Yittoria. After this signal 
victory, the task of reducing the forts near the tremen- 
dous pass of Pancorbo, which secured the approach to the 
Ebro, was given to the Irish Conde and his Andalusians, to 
•■whom they fell partly by storm and partly by capitulation. 

On the 14th July, 1813, to O'Donnel and his reserve 
cof five thousand was permanently entrusted the impor- 



259 

taut duty of blocking up the French garrison in Pam- 
peluna, now almost the last stronghold of Napoleon in 
Spain. This task he conducted with great vigour, while 
Wellington secured the passes of the Pyrenees and pushed 
the siege of San Sebastian; but on Soult forcing the 
passes on the 25th July, such an alarm reached Pam- 
peluna, that the Conde de Abispal spiked some of his 
cannon, blew up his magazines, abandoned the trenches, 
and but for Picton's victorious stand at Huarte, was pre- 
pared to retreat. On the fortunate arrival of a small 
Spanish division under Don Carlos d'Espana, the blockade 
was resumed and the siege pressed with renewed 
vigour. 

O'Donnel was posted on the right of Marshal Murillo 
at the great and decisive battle of Pampeluna, so absurdly 
and obstinately styled by the British tlie battle of the 
Pyrenees, from which it is nearly thirty miles distant. 
Soult was completely overthrown, and in August O'Don- 
nel reinforced the seventh division in occupying the im- 
portant passes of Exhallar and Zugaramurdi. After this, 
being again troubled by old wounds, he fell ill and 
resigned his command for a time to Giron. In Novem- 
ber he resumed it again, and occupied the beautiful 
valley of the Bastan, prior to the invasion of France under 
Wellington. 

In February, 1814, he led six thousand men at the 
passage of the Gaves, and was engaged in all the opera- 
tions on the Lower Pyrenees with the Spaniards under 
the Prince of Anglona. He served in that victorious 
campaign which terminated at the blood-stained hill of 
Toulouse, where, as General Napier so pithily remarks, 
"the war terminated, and with it aM remenihrance of the 
veterans' services" 

In the Constitutional war which ensued in Spain nine 
years after, and during the invasion of that country by 
monarchical France in 1823, the O'Donnels bore a pro- 
minent part, and adhered to Ferdinand YII. The Conde 
de Abispal was appointed a field -marshal, with the office 
of governor and political chief at Madrid, and on the 25th 
March he issued a proclamation announcing that th« 
s2 



260 THE CAVALIEES OF FORTUNE. 

amnesty granted by the Cortes to those in arms agiinst 
the king was about to expire, and concluded by a brief 
warning to tlie factious and the Constitutionalists to lay 
down their arms. On the 17th April he published his 
able orders and propositions to the militia of the capital, 
together with the following declaration of his political 
principles : — 

•* Don Henry O'Donnel, Knight Grand Cross y <i&c., General 
of the Qrd Corps, <L^c. 

" Having learned that some ill-disposed persons have 
confounded my private ojnniooi with those sacred obliga- 
tions which my oath and duty impose upon me, and have 
given out that I am unwilling to support the Constitu- 
tion of 1812 even to the last extremity, and until the 
national representation, lawfully constituted, should have 
made certain changes therein; I do declare that lam 
resolved to defend it, according to my oath, until it shall 
be altered by those means which the Constitution itself 
prescribes, and that I deem as traitors all Spaniards who, 
deviating from the path of duty traced out by law, shall 
cease to obey the same. Such were my sentiments when, 
in answer to an address from M. Montijo, I wrote a 
letter which they charge me with having published, and 
such will ever be my sentiments. But my opinion as an 
individual shall never prevent me from fulfilling my duty 
as a general and a citizen of Spain. 

''Madrid, nth May, 1823." 

But ere long he found the difficulty of reconciling his 
private sentiments and conviction with his duty to a king 
who had become the tool of France. Abispal proved the 
Talleyrand of Spain, and lost all favour by his indecision 
and vacillation ; for, after receiving the Grand Cordon of 
the Order of Carlos III. from the hands of Ferdinand 
YII,, he passed over to the Constitutionalists. From 
that day his power declined, and he was glad to seek 
shelter from the fury and clamour of the people at Mont- 
pelier in France, where he lived in retirement and much 
leduced in circumstances. 



COUNTS o'rEILLY AND o'dONNEL, ETC. 261 

His son, Leopold Count O'Donnei,, remained iu Spain, 
and had attained the rank of colonel when the civil war 
broke out between the Carlists and Christinos, a step in 
which the children of the four elder O'Donnels w^ere 
strangely divided, brother against brother, and cousin 
against cousin. 

Thus, on the 2nd May, 1835, when Quesada was 
attacked by Don Tomas Zumalacarregui (the Claverhonse 
of Spanish loyalty), his division would have been annihi- 
lated but for the timely succour he received from Colonel 
Leopold O'Donnel de Abispal, who unfortunately was 
taken prisoner by the Navarrese while vainly struggling 
to rally the Eoyal Guards. All who were captured wera 
barbarously shot by the Carlists, and of all who perished 
none was more regretted than the young, handsome, and 
chivalric O'Donnel. Though a colonel in the service, he 
was merely accompanying Quesada to profit by his escort 
so far as Pampeluna, where he was about to celebrate his 
nuptials with a beautiful Spanish girl of high rank, and 
the heiress of an old and wealthy family. A noble ran- 
som was offered, but Don Tomas was inexorable. 

His father, Hemy O'Donnel, then in his old age, died 
of a broken heart at Montpelier, on hearing of his sonV 
disastrous fate. 

Colonel John O'Donnel (a cousin of Leopold's) com- 
manded the 2nd regiment of Castilian infantry. Mobile his 
brother Charles led the insurgent cavalry of Don Tomas, 
and at the head of his own corps, the heavily-armed and 
ferocious lancers of Navarre, performed in his twenty- 
fifth year the most brilliant feats of the Constitutional 
war. For his romantic victory over Lopez, in fair battle 
on one of the immense plains of Old Castile, he was made 
Knight of San Ferdinando. Soon after, he was mortally 
wounded in action near Pampeluna, and as he expired in 
agony, he exclaimed : " I wish some one would send a 
bullet through me and end this misery ! — I have but a 
short time to live. Already four O'Donnels have p«rished 
in this war ; and their blood h.'*s been sli^d on the right 
fcide as well as on t,he. wrong !" 



262 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

He referred to Leopold, wlio was shot in cold blood at 
Alsassua; to Ms second brother, who lost a leg at Arguijas, 
and died under the amputation ; to Charles, who lay on 
a bed of sickness from which he never rose ; and to 
John, who was wounded in battle at Mendigorra ; and 
being dragged from bed by a mob at Barcelona, was 
cruelly murdered in the streets and literally cut into 
ounce pieces. He and Charles left wives and children in 
France. 

Leopold, the Conde de Lucena, and his brother Colonel 
Henry O'Donnel, who in the Spanish affairs of the pre- 
sent time have borne so prominent a part, are of the same 
warlike stock ; but their adventures are too recent to 
require a record here. 



MARSHAL BARON LOUDON. 26S 



On the summit of a rising ground, by the side of a brook 
in the parish of Loudon in Ayrshire, stand the ruins of 
the ancient Castle of Loudon, whicii was destroyed about, 
three hundred and fifty yeara ago by the clan Kennedy^ 
headed by their chief, the Earl of Cassilis. This old 
Scottish stronghold was the seat of a family from which 
sprung Gideon Ernest Baron Loudon, or de Laudohn, a 
distinguished general of the Continental wars. 

Loudon of that ilk was one of the oldest families irt 
the kingdom of Scotland. 

Lambin was proprietor of the lands and barony of 
Loudon during the reign of David L, who succeeded to 
the throne in 1124. James of Loudon, dominus de eodem^ 
or of that ilk, obtained a charter of the same barony 
from Richard de Morville, Constable of the Kingdom , 
Jacoho filio Lambin, &c., also obtained a charter from 
William de Morville, as Jacoho de Loudon, terrarurm 
haronice de Loudon. Both these documents were granted 
during the reign of William the Lion, who succeeded to 
the throne in 1165, and are, says Sir Bobert Douglas, ar 
proof that he took his sirname from these lands, accord- 
ing to the custom of those early times ; and his armorial 
bearings were, argent, three escutcheons sable. His 
daughter, Margaret of Loudon, was married to Sir Begi- 
nald Crawford, High Sheriff of Ayr, and became the 
grandmother of Sir William Wallace, the heroic defender 
of the liberties of his country. 

In later times, a branch of this old family had left 

"Loudon's bonnie woods and braes," 

£0 famed in Scottish song, and settled in Livonia, where 
their bravery and services had won them several fi.efs and 



264 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUXE. 

baronies, of wliich, however, they were dispossessed by 
Charles XI. of Sweden, after the peace of Oliva, wlieu 
the Polish Republic gave ii]^ its right to the old Teutonic 
province. 

During the reigu of his successor, the famous Charles 
XII., the Livonian nobles made a vigorous effort to regain 
x-lieir patrimonies and privileges ; but the Swedish king 
having put to death their representative, the celebrated 
general, John Raynold Patkul, an officer in the service, 
of Augustus, King of Poland, by cruelly breaking him 
alive upon the wheel, jvhere he received sixteen blows, 
enduring the longest and greatest tortures that can be 
conceived, all ho]3e of restoring Livonian liberty died ; 
find with many other noble families, the Loudons dedicated 
themselves to the profession of arms : one became a 
captain in the Royal Swedish Guards, and was uncle of 
the subject of this memoir. 

Gideon Ernest Loudon was born at Tootzen, in 
Livonia, in the year 1716. 

In consequence of the war and troubles in which his 
native province was involved, his education was much 
neglected ; and thoi\gh his great military genius in after 
years enabled him in some deojree to supply the deficiency, 
he never ceased to regret the loss he had sustained, l^y 
those circumstances over which he had no control, but 
which, fortunately for himself, forced him to earn his 
bread by his sword as a soldier of fortune. He had 
learned little more than to read and to write, with a smat- 
tering of geography and geometry, when in 1731 hu 
entered the Russian service as a cadet. 

He was then in his fifteenth year, and Anne, dauglitcr 
of Ivan II., niece of Peter the Great, and consort of the 
Duke of Courland, was Czarina of Russia. The corps to 
which young Loudon was attached was a battalion cf 
infantry; and after being two years in garrison %vith it, an 
opportunity was afforded him of making an essay in arms, 
when the war of the Double Election created disturbances 
in northern Europe. 

In 1733 Stanislaus Lecziuski, whom Charles XII. had 



MARSHAL BARON LOUDON. 265 

invested witli tlie Sovereignty of Poland in 1701, and 
whom Peter the Great had dethroned, was chosen king a 
second time on his daughter being married to Louis XY., 
from whom he received a paltry succour, consisting of 
only four battalions of infantry ; but the Austrian Era- 
]ieror, on being assisted by the Russians, compelled the 
Poles to make another selection, and the Elector of Saxony 
was raised to their throne by the name of Augustus III., 
while poor King Stanislaus w^as driven into Dantzig, 
where the Russians followed and besieged him. 

Loudon's regiment served with the blockading force, at 
the investment of this populous city, which is the capital 
of Western Prussia, and at that time had a population of 
two hundred thousand. Loudon was present during the 
siege and capture of Dantzig, from which, however, the 
ex-King of Poland made an escape, and renounced for 
ever the poor distinction of being monarch of a republic 
plimged in anarchy. 

In the year 1734, his regiment formed part of the 
army which was sent by the Empress Anne towards the 
Low Countries, and spread a terror along the frontier of 
Germany. In this campaign he marched from the banks 
of the Wolga to those of the Rhine. A peace being 
signed at Vienna, the forces marched to the Dnieper, the 
scene of so many sanguinary encounters between the Russ 
and Turk. This movement was to repel the Osmanlies 
ftnd punish the Tartars of the Crimea, who had made an 
irruption into the southern province of Russia, and com- 
mitted unparalleled outrages. 

In the army under Marshal the Count de Munich, 
young Loudon served in the long campaign from 1736 to 
1739, and was present in that barbarous w^arfare in the 
Crimea, which is already detailed in the memoirs of 
the Counts Lacy and Brown, including the capture of 
Azoph ; the storming of the lines at Perecop ; the assault 
and capture of Oczackow, Staveoctochane and Choczim, 
with the general ravage and subjugation of the Tartar 
peninsula down to the extreme verge of the Tauric range, 
&nd to the Symbolorum Portus of Strabo — the harbour 
of Balaclava. 



266 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

In his position, which was then so subordinate, the 
share borne by Loudon in those brilliant operations was 
necessarily obscure ; but, for his ability and attention to 
duty, he was soon raised from the rank of cadet to tho 
commissions of a second, and then first lieutenant; a 
proof that the germ of an able officer had been discerned 
by his colonel in the foreign volunteer. The treaty wliich 
ceded Azoph to Russia in 1739 secured a brief peace to 
Europe, and the Empress Anne Ivanowna began to dis- 
band her unwieldly forces. 

On this occurring, Lieutenant Loudon repaired to St. 
Petersburg in 1740, for the double purpose of complain- 
ing to the Empress that he had been unjustly treated 
during the war, having served nine years and being still 
a subaltern ; and also to solicit from her further employ- 
ment and promotion. Disappointed in both these objects, 
he resigned his commission in her service with disgust, 
and quitted the Russian capital, resolving to make an 
offer of his sword to the Empress Queen of Hungary, 
Maria Theresa, who had succeeded her father Charles VL 
on the Austrian throne, and found it assailed on all sides 
by hostile armies. 

As he passed through Berlin he fell in with several 
officers, principally Scots and Irishmen, with whom he 
had served under Marshal Munich in the late campaigns ; 
and some of these recommended him to join the Prussian 
service, in which they had all accepted commissions ; and 
one was kind enough to offer him an introduction to tjio 
warlike Frederick II., with whom, after some weeks' delay, 
he had the honour of an interview. Loudon modestly 
stated his nine years' service, his junior rank and wishes, 
adding that, as he had held a lieutenantcy under the Em- 
press Anne, he ventured to hope that his Majesty would 
bestow upon him the command of a company. Frederick 
keenly scrutinized his face, which "was serious, cold, 
severe, reserved, pensive, and reflecting " (for he was a 
man schooled in danger and adversity), and it did not 
prepossess the royal martinet of Pinissia in his favour, for 
he had the rudeness to turn his back upon the military 
stranger, and say to some officers near him, — 



MARSHAL BARON LOUDON. 267 

" The physiognomy of this man does not please me.''' 

In anger and mortiiication young Loudon, then in liis 
twenty-fourth year, quitted his presence with a swelling 
heart; but he could not then foresee the time when he 
would become the most formidable enemy that ever met 
the Prussian monarch in the field. 

In very poor circumstances he reached Vienna in 1742, 
and being furnished with a strong recommendatory letter 
from the Austrian ambassador, repaired to the Imperial 
palace in search of military employment. While he w-as 
lingering unknown and unnoticed in the ante-chamber, a 
gentleman accosted hira, inquiring his name and business. 
Loudon having mentioned both, and expressed great desire 
to see the Empress, this person said, " I will do all in my 
power to assist you, sir," and passed directly into the 
cabinet. In a few minutes "Lieutenant Loudon" was 
summoned by name, and on entering, was astonished to 
discover in his unknown protector the husband of the 
beautiful Maria Theresa, Francis Stephen, Grand Duke of 
Tuscauy and First Emperor of the House of Lorraine- 
Austria ! Under auspices so favourable, his request was 
at once granted, and he obtained a company in the Free- 
Corps of Pandours raised by Baron Trenck, who had 
known Loudon in Russia, and was well pleased to have 
under him so gallant an officer. 

These Pandours were Sclavonians from the banks of" 
the Drave, a river of Germany which rises in the Tyrol 
and empties itself into the Danube near Effeck in 
Hungar}^. This regiment, which was raised chiefly in the 
village of Pandour or Szent Istevan, wore long coats girt 
by a waist-belt, in which each man carried a sabre, four 
or five pistols, and a poniard. On service they always 
acted as irregular cavalry. This corps had originally 
been infantry, and were styled the Regiment of Kuitza. 
Their chief occupation had been to clear the roads of 
brigands and freebooters ; and though the biographer of 
Baron Trenck endeavoui-s to conceal the fact, history 
proves that in their new organization the Pandours were 
«, mere military banditti, whose pay was plunder, and: 
whose duty was devastation. 



^68 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

Little as he must have liked the service, Captain Loudon 
<5ommenced a campaign in their ranks, in the war which 
ensued on Louis XV. and the King of Prussia leaguing 
-together for the partition of the Austrian Empire. A 
,rrench army under the Marshal Dukes de Belleisle and 
de Broglie, entered Germany, where the Bavarian Elector 
formed a junction with them ; reduced Lintz, the capita'. 
t)f Upper Austria, and threatened Vienna. Kevenlmller 
recovered Lintz ; the battle of Czaslau, in which the 
Pandoui« and Croats charged with such effect and fury 
was fougVA ; Prague was besieged, and all northern 
Europe fou.v^l itself engaged in a general strife. 

At the heav^ ^^ his Pandours Baron Trenck acted the 
part of a bold partisan. He stormed the Isle of Rhein- 
-marck, put its garrison to the sword, and with his own 
sabre slew the commandant, the Comte de Creveceur. 
Mentzel with four thousand Croats and Pandours broke 
into Lorraine and Luxembourg, where they committed 
'terrible devastations. 

In 1744:, when Prince Charles of Lorraine forced his 
famous passage over the Ehine, Gideon Loudon led his 
company in the foremost boat, and was the^?'^^ who 
landed on French ground ; but in a skirmish with the 
advanced picquets of the French near Zabern, a city built 
«on the summit of a rock, and defended by a strong castle 
'Of the Bishops of Strasburg, he was struck by a musket- 
ball when fighting bravely at the head of his men. It 
entered his right breast and came out behind near the 
shoulder-blade, and thus incapacitated him for farther 
service for some time. He fell — was taken prisoner, and 
conveyed to a neighbouring cottage. A few days after- 
wards the Austrian army advanced ; the Pandours drove 
the enemy ; Loudon wa.s restored to liberty, and had the 
satisfaction of saving from pillage the dwelling of the 
peasant with whom he had found shelter and by w^hom 
he had been benevolently treated. 

Meantime the King of Prussia, sick of his bloody vic- 
tories, signed the treaty of Breslau, which filled France 
with consternation, and forced her marshals, Belleisle and 



MARSHAL BARON LOUDOX. 269 

Broglie, to retire towards Prague ; but the close of 1745 
saw tranquillity restored to Germany for a time. 

Disgusted with the reckless regiment of Trenck, London, 
quitted it and returned to Vienna, where he resigned his 
commission and was preparing to leave the Austrian 
dominions in search of fortune elsewhere, when some of 
his military friends advised him to remain, and procured 
for him a majority in the regiment of Liccaner, which at 
that time was garrisoning a town on the Croatian fron- 
tier. His old corps the Pandours were disbanded, but 
were afterwards re-organized in 1750 as regular troops, 
and became of great service in the war of 1756, and in 
those of the fii^t French Revolution. 

This new appointment and its emoluments enabled him. 
to esj^ouse Clara de Hagen, the daughter of a brave Hun- 
garian officer wlio resided at Psesing, He was sincerely 
attached to this lady, and they had one child, a daughter, 
who died in infancy. 

During ten years that he remained in the garrison 
towns of Croatia he spent all his leisure houi-s in perfect- 
ing his military education, and completing the study of 
fortification, geography, and geometry. He procured a 
vast number of maps and plans of fortified places, such 
as castles and barrier towns ; and, as if he had some intui- 
tive presentiment of the part he was yet to perform in 
the great game of war, he ])ored over them incessantly. 
Having once obtained a German map of unusual size, he 
spread it over the floor of his barrack-room, and sat domn 
upon it, to pursue his study of it with greater ease, and 
was thus occupied when Madame Loudon entered. 

'•' My dear major," said she, *•' still as ever, occupied by 
these horrid plans and perpetual studies !" 

'• Never mind my present labours," said he, cheerfully ; 
"they will be of great service to me, my dear Clara, 
when I obtain the baton of a field-marshal." 

Madame Loudon laughed, for her husband was then 
eight- and- thirty, and the baton of a marshal seemed yet 
to be a long way off. 

In 175G the Seven Years' War was threatened. A 



270 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

league was formed by the Court of Vienna for stripping 
the King of Prussia of his dominions. The French threat- 
ened the electorate of Hanover, and formed an alliance 
with Sweden and Austria against Britain and Prussia, 
the king of which, on receiving evasive answers from 
Vienna as to the object of the Austrian armaments, pre- 
pared for immediate strife. 

Anxious for employment, and remembering, perhaps, 
the manner in which Frederick II. had insulted bim at 
his levee in Berlin, the enterprising spirit of Loudon in- 
duced him to visit Vienna and solicit a command against 
Prussia ; but having left his regiment without obtaining 
leave of absence, he was on the point of being repri- 
manded and ordered back to Croatia, when by good for- 
tune he obtained the friendship and patronage of Prince 
Kaunitz, the head of a noble family, whose possessions 
lie on the Iglau in Moravia. By the j)rince's interest he 
was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel of eight hundred Croats. 
These wild and hardy troops were destined to be ordered 
on every desperate service, and as their mode of fighting 
resembled in every respect i)hat of the Pandours, Loudon 
was well fitted to command them ; more especially as he 
had acquired their dialect while quartered in their native 
province. They were all clad in short waistcoats with 
sleeves, long white breeches, light boots, and rough huzzar 
caps. They had each a long firelock with a rifle barrel 
and short bayonet, a crooked sabre, and brace of pistols. 
This corps formed part of five thousand Croats levied by 
the Empress-Queen for the new war against Prussia. 
Like the Pandours of Baron Trenck, they had no pay or 
provisions, but such as their swords and the terror of 
their presence won them ; and as irregular troops they 
were a scourge wherever they marched. 

On the 29th of August, 1756, the King of Prussia en- 
tered Saxony at the head of seventy battalions of foot 
and eighty squadrons of horse, in three columns, which 
marched by three difierent routes, but formed a junction 
at Dresden and captured it. The Elector, who was King 
of Poland by the title of Augustus III., took refuge in a 
camp at Pima, while Frederick marched into Bohemia 



MAESHAL BARON LOUDON. 271 

and found tlie Austrians encamped at Lowositz under 
Marshal Count Brown, who was defeated there in October; 
and after a long and bloody contest forced to retire in rear 
of Egra. 

It was at this time that Loudon with his Croats joined 
the Austrian army ; and in the disastrous retreat which 
ensued after Lowositz, he narrowly escaped when a hun- 
dred of his grenadiers were slain by the Prussian hussars. 
During Marshal Brown's retreat out of Saxony, Loudon 
took by surprise the town of Estchen at the head of five 
hundred men, and destroyed two squadrons of Prussian 
hussars. This was his first exploit, and it was deemed 
the most brilliant of the Austrian campaign. 

He distinguished himself again at Hirschfeld, on the 
Bohemian frontier ; and for his bravery on that occasion 
was appointed colonel in February, 1757. 

On the 20th of that month his corps had formed part 
of the six thousand Austrians who attacked the Prussian 
position at four in the morning. Loudon fought with in- 
credible bravery, and slew many of the enem% with his 
own hand. In August he attacked the Schriekstein and 
captured three hundred newly raised soldiers. He now 
obtained an increased command — a small division, six 
thousand strong, consisting of Croats and Pandours. 
With these he attacked and defeated a body of the enemy 
at Erfurth, a garrison town of Saxony. He then joined 
the now allied French and Imperialists, who marched to 
Weissenfels, a city in the centre of Thuringia. By this 
time the Swedes were pushing on the w^ar in Pomerania 
and had besieged Stettin. Marshal Richelieu with 
eighty battalions and one hundred squadrons of French 
had entered Halberstadt, and was everywhere le\'ying 
contributions with fire and sword, while the Austrians 
had made themselves masters of Lignitz and most of 
Silesia ; and after laying siege to Schwiednitz, were pre- 
paring to pass the Oder. Everywhere the tide of war had 
turned upon the King of Prussia. 

Loudon was now with what was named the Combined 
Army. The Prince de Soubise commanded the French ; 
the Prince of Hildburghausen led the Austrians, and 



•75 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

their united and immediate object was to clear Saxony 
of the Prussians. Frederick left a division to cover 
Silesia, and approached this Combined Army, which passed 
the Sala and established its head-quarters at Weissenfels ; 
from whence the Comte de Mailly was sent to summon 
Leipzig. On the 5th November, the King of Prussia 
gave battle to this Combined Army, then fifty thousand 
strong, at Kosbach, a village of Prussian Saxony, at 
eleven o'clock in the morning. The allies were formed in 
line with their cavalry in front. The impetuosity of the 
Prussian infantry, whose charge was admirably sustained 
by a fire of artillery and advance of horse, broke the 
allied line, and, notwithstanding all the efforts of the 
Prince de Soubise, Frederick obtained a complete victory 
with the loss of three hundred men only ; while the Com- 
bined Army lost no less than eleven generals, three hun- 
dred other officers, nine thousand killed, wounded, and 
prisoners, sixty-three guns, twenty-nine colours, and one 
pair of kettle-drums. With the battle of Rosbach ter- 
minated the campaign in Saxony. 

Loudon was with the Combined Army during all these 
operations ; and the Prince of Hildburghausen, desirous of 
signalizing his own authority by some grand stroke, pro- 
posed to the Prince de Soubise the project of dislodging 
the Prussians from the petty principality of Gotlia, where 
Seidlitz commanded. They began their march accord- 
ingly with their grenadiers and Austrian heavy cavalry, 
•while Loudon led the Pandours and French light dra- 
goons. They dispatched one column of cavalry over the 
heights which led to Thuringia ; another on the left, 
preceded by hussars, approached Gotha from the side of 
Langcnsaltza ; while Loudon with the Pandours, dragoons, 
and a body of grenadiers, formed the column of the 
centre. 

Seidlitz was ready to receive them. He was in order 
of battle, and had all the defiles secured by horse and 
cannon. A desultory conflict ensued among the woods 
and mountains ; and though the Prince de Soubise cut a 
l)assage to the castle wall of Gotha, he was obliged to 
retreat and leave three officers and one hundred and sixty 



MARSHAL BAKON LOUDON. 273 

soldiers in the hands of Seidlitz. The Prussian column 
under the Prince of Bavern attempted to cover Breslau, 
which surrendered on the 22nd November to the Austrian 
generals, by whom he was made prisoner ; while the 
remnaut of his army joined Frederick, and on the 
5th December the battle of Lissa, where he gained a 
signal victory, was fought in Silesia. Such was the 
severity of fche season that many hnndreds of soldiers 
vrere found dead on their posts ; and the German generals 
were reproached with heartlessly exposing their men to 
the extremity of cold ; for a campaign in winter is alike 
opposed to the dictates of humanity and the common rules 
of war, as the operations of our own troops in the Crimea 
liave given terrible proof. 

In these arduous duties, though always at the head of 
his Croats and Pandours, Loudon never received another 
wound, though exposed almost daily to balls, bayonets, and 
sabres ; and it is worthy of remark that the musket-shot 
received at Zabern was the only scar of his long military 
career. 

In the campaign of 1758 he received the Imperial 
military Order of Maria Theresa, which was instituted by 
the Empress Queen in the June of the preceding year. 
In this Order it is an inviolable principle that no officer 
whatsoever, " on account of his high birth, long service, 
wounds, or former merits, much less from mere favour, or 
the recommendation of others, be received; but that 
those only who have signalized then) selves by some par- 
ticular act of valour, or have aided the Imperial service 
by able and beneficial councils, and contributed to their 
execution by distinguished bravery, shall be admitted." 

In the operations of the new year the King of Prussia 
recovered Schwiednitz from the Imperialists on the 16th 
April ; entered Moravia on the 27th May ; invested 01- 
mutz, which was stoutly defended by the governor, 
General Marshall, a Scotsman ; while Marshal Dann, 
under whom Loudon held a command, took post on the 
adjacent mountains, to intercept and cut off the Prussian 
convoys. The siege had now been open for four weeks, 
and the trenches we-v« v>ushed with great vigour by the 

« 



274: THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

Scottisli exile — tlie gallant Marshal Keitli — notwithstand- 
ing the great difficulties attending it ; for Loudon, 
bravely, and at incalculable hazard, in the defiles of Dam- 
8tadt, in the principality of Lichenstien, intercepted a 
convoy of four hundred waggons, and obliged General 
Zeithen, who escorted them with twenty squadrons and 
three battalions, after a five hours' encounter, to retire on 
Trappau. This loss was irreparable, for General Put- 
kammer, eight hundred men, and the military chest were 
taken. 

The King of Prussia was compelled to raise the siege, 
and effected one of the most able retreats ever seen in 
Germany ; he then marched to oppose the Russians, who 
had broken into Brandenburg under Generals Brown 
and Farmer, two Scotsmen, whom he met in battle at 
Zorndorf, defeated on the 25th August, and drove them 
into Poland. 

Had Loudon (who was ably seconded by Daun) not 
intercepted General Zeithen, " *he town of Olmutz must 
have been taken in a fortnight," says Frederick, who 
styles it the Battle of the Convoy ; " for the third parallel 
was finished, and the besiegera had begun to open the 
saps." For this service Loudon received the rank of 
lieutenant-field-marshal. 

He had now won the reputation of being the first 
cavalry officer in the service of the Em press- Queen; and 
he was of great use to Daun in galling and incommoding 
the King of Prussia during the retreat from Olmutz. 

With four thousand men he took post in the wood of 
Opotshno, a Bohemian town, fifteen miles north-east of 
Koningengratz, where he intended to attack the Baron 
de la Mothe Fouque, who with thirty-two battalions and 
squadrons was conveying the heavy siege train. But 
there Loudon was unexpectedly assailed by Frederick, 
tvho had heard of his projected ambush, and marched to 
attack him in it, and he was forced to retire through the 
forest with the loss of a hundred Croatian troopers. He 
retreated towards Holitz, and thus the siege train passed 
J«vnmolested to Glatz. 

Loudon and General St. Ignan followed Frederick 



MARSHAL BARON LOUDON". 275- 

closely ; at Koningengi-atz their Paudours slew General 
Saldeni, Colonel Blankenzee, and seventy men, but were- 
checked by the sabres of Putkammer's hussars ; and to- 
prevent this harassing of the rear-guard, Frederick pre- 
pared an ambuscade on a narrow path which lies through 
a wood at Metau. In this defile he concealed ten bat- 
talions and twenty squadrons, under whose fire tho 
Austrians were drawn by a few flying skirmishers^ 
" Loudon, who was very easily heated," to quote Fre- 
derick, '• resolved on an assault ;" but the Prussian cavalry 
poured upon him like a torrent, a fire opened upon his- 
men from every point of the rocks and pass, three hundred 
were shot dead, and he was forced to retire. Soon after 
this he was lured again, by the Volunteers of Le Noble,, 
into a ravine near Skalitz, where he was suddenly assailed 
by six battalions in the night, and had to give way, with 
the loss of six officers and seventy men. 

He took possession of Peitz, a town in the Duchy of 
Brandenburg, on the right bank of the jMatx, and left no- 
means untried to fulfil with signal success his duty of 
covering Daun's left flank during the whole of the Austriait 
advance and Prussian retreat. Daun posted himself at 
Stolpen, to the eastward of the Elbe, on one hand to pre- 
serve a communication with a column which he had 
detached to Koningstien, and on the other to favour the 
active operations of Marshal Loudon, who had advanced, 
through Lower Lusatia to the frontier of Brandenburg. 

At tlie battle of Hochkirchen, which was fought on. 
the 13th October, the defeat of the Prussians was solely 
attributed to Loudon s skill and bravery. On the 12th-, 
he had attacked a great convoy, but was repulsed by 
Marshal the Honourable James Keith, with the loss of 
eighty men, among whom was the Prince de Lichenstien,. 
lieutenant-colonel of the regiment of Lowenstien. After 
this Loudon assembled his dispersed troops and took 
ground in a woody mountain, which was a long quarter' 
of a league, German measure, beyond the Prussian right^. 
facing the village of Hochkirchen. A marsh separated the- 
flank of Frederick from this height. Daun secretly pre- 
pared a road for four columns to form a junction witli^ 
t2 



276 THE CAVALIEHS OP FORTUNE. 

Loudon, who on the night of the 13th glided down with 
his swift Pandours to the rear of the Prussian position, 
and set on fire the village of Hochkirehen, driving out by 
the edge of the sabre the battalions quartered there, and 
seizing on a battery which defended an angle of the pl&ce ; 
while the gallant Major Lang, with the regiment of the 
JMargrave Charles, threw himself into the churchyard, and 
in the dark opened a blaze of musketry on the Pandours, 
whose light uniforms were soon too fatally visible by tlie 
flames of the burning village. Around this conflagration 
the whole tide of battle rolled at midnight. The aged 
Marshal Keith and Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick were 
killed, and the Prussians were defeated with the loss of 
eeveu thousand men and most of their camp equipage. 

Marshal Daun filled his despatch (which detailed this 
victory) with the highest encomiums on Loudon, whom 
he sent immediately towards Silesia in pursuit of Fre- 
derick, whose forces he was to exclude from Lusatia ; and 
so he followed and galled them with untiring zeal and 
vigour, though he was then sufiering from a severe and 
chronic disease in the stomach ; but on his march towards 
the Saxon capital, the Prussian monarch made one 
vigorous stand and repulsed him ; after which he retired 
to Zittau. 

Reinforced by 1 2,000 men, the marshal concealed him- 
self in the forest of Schonberg, where he again attacked 
the Prussians, whose whole line of march became "one 
battle j" but Prince Henry, Frederick's brother, conv 
manded the rearguard ; and so excellent were his disposi- 
tions, that only Lieutenant- General Bulow and 215 sol- 
diers fell. 

On the 1st November, Frederick began his march for 
Silesia. Loudon, still pressing on, fell with such fury on 
the rearguard, that he was nearly taken prisoner by the 
Prussian hussars. He then brought up his cannon ; but 
these were dismounted by the heavier pieces of Frederick, 
which at the same time threw the Austrian foot into 
disorder. Thrice Loudon rallied them ; and thrice, sword 
in hand, he led them to the charge: but the approach of 
the noble Putkammer hussars compelled him to fall 



MARSHAL BARON LOUDOX. 277 

back ; and tlius, amid skirmislies, iiiglit marclies, toil, 
starvation, plunder, and devastation, the campaign of the 
year was closed by the Austrians raising the sieges of 
Neiss and Dresden, and the King of Prussia retiring to 
winter quarters at Breslau. 

The generals of the Imperial army usually sponl the 
winter in the Austrian capital ; and now the Empress 
expressed a strong desire to see Marshal Loudon, of 
whom Count Daun had written so favourably in all his 
despatches and letters. Thus he prepared to return to 
Vienna, but was compelled to remain for some time at 
Dceplitz in Bohemia, in consequence of a return of his 
illness : and there Madame Loudon, who had remained 
at Vienna during the whole war, arrived to attend him. 
As soon as he was sufficiently restored, they travelled 
together to the capital, where they arrived on the 24tl) 
of February, 1759. The streets were crowded by densi 
masses of persons, all anxious to behold and to welcome 
the hero of whom they had heard so much, and his recep- 
tion was most enthusiastic. Only two years had elapsed 
since he left that city as a field-officer of Croats, and now 
he returned to it a Lieutenant-Field-Marshal and Knight 
of Maria Theresa. 

From the fair Empress he received the most flattering 
distinction ; and she commanded her own physician, the 
Baron Von Swieten, to attend him until his health was 
completely re-established. She bestowed upon him the 
Grand Cross of her Order, and created him a Baron of 
the Holy Boman Empire. 

The moment his physician permitted him, he resumed 
his command ; and no general of the Seven Years' War 
bore a more distinguished part in the campaign of 1759 
than Baron Loudon, though Frederick II., who liad 
imbibed an animosity to him, always mentions his name 
slightingly in his works. 

The Prussian monarch, in the beginning of the year, 
had great success ; but his chief embarrassment was the 
approach of the Bussians, who defeated him in Silesia on 
the 23rd July, and spread their outposts along the banks 
of the Oder. On the frontiers of Bohemia nothing of im- 



"278 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

portaiice occurred, though Loudon, who occupied Trau- 
iienau, was continually in motion, alarming the Prussian 
^osts and cutting off their supplies. 

He made an attack on General Seidlitz near Frederick's 
strong camp at Schmuckseiffen, and lost 150 men. Im- 
mediately after this, the Court of Vienna gave him com- 
anand of 20,000 men, 1200 of whom were dragoons, to 
give vigour to their Russian allies, who were destitute of 
cavalry. By the way of Greiffenberg he marched througli 
Silesia, foiling, deceiving, and skirmishing with the horse 
of Prince Heniy, till he took up a position on the heights 
of Laubau, wliere he had fought the Prussians in the pre- 
ceding year. He chose this ground with the intention of 
being in advance of them now, when he should receive 
orders to join the Russians under Count Soltikow. 

With this general he achieved a junction, and together 
they took up a position at Cunnersdorff, opposite Frank- 
'fort-on-the-Oder, and gave battle to Frederick at eleven 
o'clock, A.M., on the 12th of August. The Russians had 
their intrenchments stormed amid great slaughter; a 
starfort erected by them on two sand hills, to cover their 
right flank, was can-ied at the point of the bayonet, and 
a dreadful massacre of them ensued in the churchyard of 
Cunnersdorff. Under the glare of a burning sun, and 
sore with many a wound, the brave King of Prussia led 
on his troops; and for two hours the infantry fought 
hand to hand. The Jews' Cemetery, seven redoubts, and 
180 pieces of cannon, were already taken, when Loudon, 
perceiving that the Russians were unable to maintain 
their ground, brought up his well-chosen reserves, and 
fired his field-pieces loaded with case-shot, to sweep the 
Pimssian line. He then charged on both flanks with his 
fine Austrian cavalry, who bore down all before them. 
The Prussians fell into confusion, and their rout became 
total. Frederick had two horses shot under him, and his 
blue uniform literally torn to rags by bullets and sword- 
cuts. The struggle was awful, and night came down 
on a field where 30,000 men lay dead or dying, and of 
these more than the half were Prussians. The brave 



MARSHAL BARON LOUDON. 279 

?vitkammer was slain, and ten other generals lay killed 
or wounded near him. 

The movements of Frederick after this most signa 
defeat were of a masterly description. He soon compellecl 
Loudon and Soltikow to act on the defensive, and reco- 
vered every place in the Saxon Electorate except Dresden- 
Forcing the Russians to retire into Poland, he joined hi.i 
brother Prince Henry in Saxony, compelled Marshal 
Daun to retreat as far as Plawen, and forced him to tak<« 
shelter in the camp at Pirna ; after which he retired into 
vvinter quarters in November. 

For his victory at Cunnersdorff Loudon was raised to 
the rank of General-velt-zeug-Meister ; but he drew off 
from Soltikow with all his cavalry immediately after the 
battle. 

In the campaign of 1760 he received command of the 
army destined for service in Silesia. It consisted of 
40,000 men, and in all operations he was to be seconded 
by the Russians, who, according to an agreement made by 
the two Empresses, were to fight their way along thb 
banks of the Oder, while Daun carried on the war in 
Saxony. This array was light, and as unencumbered by 
baggage as a Pandour leader could desire. At its head 
Loudon left the camp in which he had passed the winter, 
and after attacking and repulsing General Goltze at the 
head of his horse, he left Draskowitz with 6000 men at 
Neustadt, and took the road to Bohemia, after menacing 
in succession Silesia, into which he penetrated with two 
corps, the new Marche of Brandenburg, Breslau, even 
Berlin and Schwiednitz. At last he fixed upon the 
latter, and General the Baron de la Mothe Fouque (who 
had weakened his forces by detaching the brigades of the 
Scottish General Grant and General Zeithen), deceived 
by an artful feint, marched towards it with all his troop? 
leaving the garrison in Glatz quite unprotected. 

The able Loudon at once perceived the success of his 
feint, or stratagem, and immediately had recourse to 
another. He took possession of Landshut, and left there 
a small body of troops, who were immediately assailed 



280 THE CAVALIEES OF FoKTUNE. 

and driven out by the Baron de ia Mothe. "While the 
latter was thus occupied in recovering this trivial post, 
Loudon made himself master of several important posi- 
tions, and passed in triumph through Johannesberg and 
WisstengersdorfF, and at Schwarzwalde routed the lius- 
sars of Malachowski, and thus surrounded the baron's 
little army of Prussians. The latter did everything re- 
quisite to secure their position against the superior force 
of Loudon, who early in June attacked them with irre- 
sistible fury. 

On the night of the 23rd he seized two heights on the 
right, and formed there two batteries, which swept tho 
Prussian front and rear. He then stormed their intrench* 
ments at the head of 28,000 men, and drove out the 
enemy, who formed solid squares to repel his cavalry, 
which pushed them in disordered masses on the Balken- 
hayn-road. Their squares were broken, and 4000 men 
were slain. Among them fell the gallant baron, pierced 
by two mortal wounds. Seven thousand men surrendered, 
and Glatz, the most important place between Silesia and 
Bohemia, as it stands in a narrow vale between two lofty 
hills, was the immediate consequence of the victory. 
The Gersdorff hussars and dragoons of Platen cut a pas- 
sage to Breslau with 1500 of the infantry. 

Pushing on, the victorious Loudon prepared to besiege 
that place, where he expected to be joined by the Rus- 
sians, and thus enabled to complete the conquest of 
Silesia, the great object of the war. Encouraged by his 
success at Glatz, he assailed the Silesian capital, and bom- 
barded it with great success on the 30th July. He set 
forth in his summons to surrender, " that liis forces con- 
sisted of fifty battalions and eighty squadrons, most of 
which were within three days' march ; that it was in vain 
for the governor to expect succour from the King of 
Prussia, now on the other side of the Elbe, and still moro 
vain to look for relief from Prince Henry, who must sink 
beneath the Russian sword if he attempted to obstruct its 
progress ; and that the inhabitants must resign all hope 
of terms or quarter if they ventured to defend the town." 

The reply of the governor was firm and noble. Loudon 



MARSHAL BAROX LOUDON. 281^ 

showered bombs and red-hot balls on one side, while 
attempting an assault on the other. 

Prince Henry, one of the most accomplislied of the- 
Prussian generals, advanced to its relief by a forced march 
of one hundred and twenty English miles in five days,, 
resolving to give the Baron battle before the Russians 
joined liim ; and on his approach Loudon prudently 
raised the siege and retired, though he still kept Neiss 
and Schwiednitz under blockade. The King of Prussia 
by this time was on his memorable march to prevent the 
junction of the Russian and Imperial armies in Silesia ; 
and with this intention had encamped at Lignitz, wheie, 
while encompassed by three hostile columns, he gavt?- 
battle to Loudon. Attacking him at three o'clock, a.m., 
on the loth August, near Lignitz, he repulsed him with 
loss before Daun could come to his assistance ; and further 
secured his own rear effectually by a strong corps de 
reserve and park of artillery posted on the heights of 
Paffendorf. 

Frederick obtained some information as to Loudon's 
disposition of force from an Austrian officer, an Irishman, 
who had deserted. " He was so intoxicated," says Fre- 
derick, in his own History, " that he could only stammer 
out he had a secret to reveal. After making him swallow 
some basins of warm water to relieve his stomach, he 
affirmed what had been divined, that Daun meant to 
attack the king that very day." Loudon made incredible 
efforts, on foot and on horeeback, to maintain his ground. 
After receiving five consecutive charges of five lines of 
five battalions each, the confusion of the Austrians 
became general, and they fled towards Binowitz. The 
battle of Paffendorf cost Loudon ten thousand men ; the 
field, which sloped like a glacis, was occupied by the 
Prussians, who took two generals, eighty other officers, 
six thousand soldiers, twenty-three pairs of colours, and 
eighty- two pieces of cannon ! 

\Ye next find the indefatigable Loudon in position at 
Hohenfriedberg, a small Silesian town, which he had to 
abandon on the night of the 11th September, finding his 
flank turned by the Prussian vanguard on their gaining 



582 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUXE. 

the pass of Kauder. On the 18th he occupied the defiles 
of Giersdorf, and that night, by a cannonade prevented 
the enemy from advancing to ^Yahlenburg. He next 
laid siege to the strong and important fortress of Kosel, 
seventy-three miles distant from Breslaii, and threatened 
the whole province with subjection. 

The Russians and Austrians now effected their junction 
again, and together made themselves masters of Berlin on 
the 4th October ; after which the affairs of the great Fre- 
derick seemed desperate ; but he resolved to retrieve 
them by some decided effort. Crossing the Elbe, he 
huiTied into Saxony, followed by Daun with eighty 
thousand men, whom he routed at Toorgau on the 23rd 
November. By this he recovered all that he had pre- 
viously lost ; the E-ussians retired into Poland, the 
Austrians evacuated the desolated province of Silesia, and 
the Swedes took refuge on the shores of the Baltic. By 
the defeat of Daun, Loudon was compelled abruptly to 
raise the siege of Kosel and retire out of the province. 

In 1760, Bohemia, Silesia, and other parts of Germany 
presented a lamentable aspect. Cities were empty, 
villages desolate, and castles in ruins. The fields were 
ravaged and destroyed, till a famine was at hand ; wives 
and children had perished ; husbands and fathers had 
been driven into the ranks of adverse armies, to fight for 
bare subsistence rather than their blackened hearths and 
rifled homes j trade was neglected ; the seats of learning 
abandoned ; the land untilled : and all this curse had fallen 
upon the people by the mad ambition of their kings and 
princes. 

During the winter Loudon's activity prevented Fre- 
■ derick from obtaining recruits, provisions, or forage from 
the piincipalities or circles of Neiss, Groskau, Frankestien, 
Strehlen, Neustadt, and Oppelen. 

In January he repaired to Vienna, to assist at the 
counci-s of war and arrange the plan of the new cam- 
paign. 

In this year (1761) he was destined by the Court of 
Vienna to undertake a war of sieges in Silesia, where he 
*was to be supported by the Bussians j and on the 10th of 



MARSHAL BARON LOUPON. 283 

March he resumed the command of his division. In 
April he wrote to the Empress stating that since the 18th 
instant he had revoked the truce made with General 
Goltze, and intended to fix his head-quarters at Caretau, 
a league from Glatz. In May he patrolled the country 
about Lignitz and Jauer to levy contributions, and 
eighty-seven of his men were cut off by General Tatter at 
Eostock. About the 12th May, on Frederick's approach, 
he retired into Bohemia, by tlie way of Gattesberg, before 
eighty thousand men, and on the 6th of June established 
his head- quarters at Hauptmonsdorf 

Frederick was resolved to act solely on the defensive, 
being tired of the war. 

On the 21st July he was encamped at Pulzen, when 
Loudon, who occupied the opposite mountains, descended 
by the defile of Steinkunzerdorf, feigning to attack the 
fortress of Neiss. This drew Frederick out ; and they 
engaged on the heights of Munsterberg, where a Avarni 
cannonade ensued. On the 23rd Loudon encamped at 
Ober Pomsdorf ; " and either from native restlessness, or a 
habit of commanding detachments, in eight days he 
changed his position six times ; for which no satisfactory 
reason could be given." On the 17th July the whole of 
the Prussian army received the communion, and sixty 
rounds of ball per man. 

Loudon's force, after he was joined by General Bret- 
tano from Saxony, amounted to eighty thousand men. 
He was also joined ]3y a column of Russians under Genera] 
Czernicheff'. He received a letter from Maria Theresa, 
wherein she somewhat needlessly '• gave him full power to 
give or decline battle as he chose ; and this power was to 
extend to all his military operations in general." In the 
first days of August he transnutted to her a letter which 
ho liad received from Frederick of Prussia, and written 
by his own hand, in which he offered him great sums " if 
he would agree to 'Act faintly in this campaign." Loudon 
at the same time sent the Empress a copy of his answer, 
importing, "that being accountable to God and to his 
sovereign for his conduct, all the treasures of the earth 
fehould not tempt him from his duty to either ; and that 



281: THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

he begged his Prussian Majesty would make him no 
more proposals so repugnant to his duty, and so iDJurioua 
to his honour." 

On the 15tli August he detached forty-three squadrons 
of horse to join a Russian column which had passed the 
Oder ; but Frederick met them on their march near 
Parchwitz, and defeated them, taking all their colours and 
cannon. These troops were horse grenadiers — the flower 
of the Austrian cavalry. The march of Loudon to form 
ft junction "witli the Russians," say the London papers 
for lOtli September, 1761, "is alone sufficient to raise his 
r(!putation as a general as high as even a victory could 
have done. He had marched seven hours before the 
enemy had the least suspicion of his design, and had a 
conference with Marshal Butterlin near this place 
(Lignitz) ; on his return from which he narrowly escaped 
being taken prisoner by the fleetness of his horse, his 
escort being attacked smartly by a strong detachment of 
Prussians." The allies afterwards separated ; and the 
Hamburg journals asserted that it " was owing to a pique 
and jealously between Laudohn and Butturlin about the 
command, and the open antipathy of their respective 
troops to each other." 

After a long series of marches, manoeuvres, and feigned 
attacks, in which he had completely the better of the 
great Frederick, Loudon suddenly appeared before 
Schwiednitz, the ancient and fortified capital of a prin- 
cipality situated among the hills of Lower Silesia. Its 
walls were manned by a brave Prussian garrison ; but, to 
cut off all succour, Loudon posted twenty battalions on 
the heights of Kunzendorf, which are so steep that they 
cannot be taken from any troops who possess them. 

Frederick's army, consisting of sixty-six battalions, olo 
hundred and forty-three squadrons, and four hundred and 
six pieces of cannon, encamped at Bunzehvitz, in a place 
surrounded by chevaux-de-frize, abattis, mines, an^ 
palisades. Loudon made a partial attack upon this for- 
midable post ; but, pushing on, he resolved to take 
Schwiednitz by surprise. Previous to the advance, says 
an officer of his army, in one of his letters, " his Excel- 



DSAESHAL BARON LOUDON. 



§85 



lency our general having assembled upon the Limelberg, 
the troops destined to scale the walls of Schwiednitz 
harangued them there, and promised them a reward of 
one hundred thousand florins if the place was taken 
without pillage. 

•' ' No, no r exclaimed the Walloon grenadiers ; ' lead 
us on, and we will follow to glory ; but we will take no 
jiioney from you, our father Loudon !' 

" Then the Count de Wallace, colonel of the regiment 
of Loudon Fusiliers, after being twice repulsed by two 
battalions of the brave regiment of Treskow, said to 
his soldiers, — 

" ' I must carry this fort or die ! I have promised it 
to Loudon ; remember that our regiment hears his name — 
it must conquer or perish P 

" This short speech produced a surprising effect. An 
entire battalion sprung furiously into the ditch. The 
officers themselves fixed the scaling-ladders, and were the 
first that mounted. M, de Wallace had the glory of 
forcing the most difficult point of attack, and taking 
prisoners two battalions, who made the most courageous 
defence. "■"■ 

Twenty battalions had been distributed to the four 
points of attack. One column advanced to the Breslau 
gate, a second on the Strigau gate, a third to the fort of 
Bockendorf, and a fourth on the redoubt of Eau. On 
the 1st October, at three in the morning, favoured by a 
dense fog, Loudon and Wallace led their soldiers to the 
assault ; and the escalade was made with such rapidity, 
that the garrison had only time to fire tii;ehe cannon shot. 
Lieutenant-General Zastrow, the governor, who had been 
at a ball, hurried his troops to arms ; but the contest was 
short ; a few volleys were exchanged, when a magazine 
blew up and killed eight hundred Prussians in the fort 
of Bockendorf. Taking advantage of the confusion, 
Wallace rushed on, burst open the gates of the town, and 
with the loss of only six hundred men, Loudon was master 
of the place before daybreak. Zastrow and three thou- 

* Letter from an officer to a friend at Ratisbon, Oct. 25th, 1761. 



286 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

sand men were taken, with a great store of all the mu- 
nition of war. This was a severe blow to the pride of 
Frederick, who was weak enough to attribute the success 
of Loudon to the treachery of Major Rocca, an Italian 
prisoner ; but an officer named De Beville made a noble 
defence in the redoubt of Eau. 

Loudon garrisoned the town by ten battalions, under 
General Butler, an Irishman ; and after remaining long 
encamped at Freyburg, in December he sent O'Donnei 
into Saxony after a body of Prussians, and cantoned his 
own troojDS among the mountains, while the Russians 
wintered in Pomerania. 

During the winter of 1761 an epidemic malady maae 
great ravages in the army of Loudon. It was a kind of 
leprosy, the progress of which was so rapid, that it soon 
thinned his ranks, and filled the hospitals and ceme- 
teries. 

The year 1762 saw a fortunate change in the affairs of 
Prussia ; Peter III., a peaceful prince, succeeded to the 
P-ussian throne, and formed an alliance with Frederick, 
who did not fail to profit by it, and retook Schwied- 
nitz, though garrisoned by 9000 men, in spite of the ut- 
most efibrts made by Daun and Loudon to prevent him. 
After this he concluded with Maria Theresa a cessation of 
hostilities in Saxony and Silesia ; and soon after peace was 
secured to Germany by the treaty of Hubertsbourg, on 
the 16th of February, 1763. 

In the seven campaigns of the Seven Years' War seven- 
teen pitched battles had been fought ; three sieges had 
been undertaken and five sustained by Prussia, with innu- 
merable skirmishes. Austria took 40,000 Prussian prison- 
ers, and Prussia took the same number of Austrians. 
The hospitals were full of maimed and sufiering soldiers. 
In each regiment, on an average, only eight officers, and 
less than 100 men, were alive who had witnessed the com- 
mencement of the war. Loudon was the only officer, not 
born a prince or of an illustrious family, who had risen 
to such high rank during that sanguinary struggle. He 
was, moreover, a stranger, a foreigner^ and a soldier of 
fortune. At the peace the Empress presented him with 



MARSHAL BARON LOUDON. 287 

the lorJsliip of Klieii Betcliwar, not far from Kolin. Oa 
this he built a strong and beautiful castle, with the reve- 
nues which he derived from a barony in Bohemia ; and 
there he retired to enjoy a few years of repose and peace, and 
to overlook the cultivation and improvement of his estate. 

In 1766 the grateful Empress made him Aulic Coun- 
cillor of War ; in 1767 the highest nobles of the Empire 
received him as one of their members; and in 1769 he 
was appointed Commandant- General in Moravia. 

In 1 770 he was present at the interview between the Em- 
peror Joseph and his old antagonist Frederick the Great 
of Prussia. Dissembling that ungenerous animosity which 
lie had imbibed against tlie fortunate Loudon, Frederick 
always addressed him as " M. Velt-Mareschal," though he 
had not attained that rank in full ; and when Loudon, 
with his natural reserve, was about to seat himself at the 
foot of the royal table, — 

" Sit next to me, M. de Loudon," said his Prussian 
Majesty ; " for, be assured, I love better to see you by my 
side than opposite to me." 

At his departiu'e he presented the baron with twa 
horses, the finest of his stud. 

In 1778 Loudon was gazetted to the rank of Field- 
T-Iarshal, and was placed at the head of an army 50,000 
strong, to defend the interests of Austria in the new 
war which broke out between the great powers of Ger- 
many, on the death of Maximilian Joseph, the Elector of 
Bavaria. 

He posted the army of the Emperor behind the Elbe, 
in strongly fortified positions ; and distributed his own 
corps among the secure posts of the Riechenberg (on the 
same ground where the Austrians were defeated by the 
Duke of Brunswick in 1757); of Gabelona, a fortified 
town which occupies an important pass ; of Schlukenau, 
thirty miles from Dresden, and towards Lusatia ; but the 
main body of his troops he skilfully distributed between 
Leutmeritz, a well-fortified town ; Lowositz, in the same 
circle, but four miles distant from it ; Dux and Toplitz. 
The King of Prussia took the field with all his force, to 
prevent the Emperor from co-operating with Loudon, to 



288 THE CAVAWERS OP FORTUKE. 

whom lie opposed the column of Prince Henry : and now 
ensued a campaign full of interest only to those who study 
brilliant manoeuvres and subtle tactics. 

Loudon's posts at Schlukenau, Rumberg, and Gabelona 
were taken by the prince, who forced him to abandon 
Aussig and Dux, with the fortifications and magazine at 
Leutmeritz, and, indeed, all the left bank of the Elbe ; 
but falling back on the Iser, he skilfully secured its pas- 
sages by strong detachments. In short, so equal was the 
distribution of strength, numbers, skill, and discipline, 
that the war was a mere succession of able movements, 
but bari'en of striking events ; and after a year of marches 
and skirmishes, the Emperor relinquished Lower Bavaria, 
on which he had seized unjustly, and a peace was con- 
cluded on the 13th May, 1779, the birthday of the Em- 
press-Queen. 

After this Loudon returned to his sequestered castle ; 
and once more, for eight years, resumed the peace and 
I)leasure of a country life. 

In 1787, when in his seventy-first year, he was again 
summoned to the field by the Emperor, to lead the 
Austrian armies against the Turks ; and a series of bril- 
liant captures and encounters realized all thit had been 
hoped from his old valour and experience. 

He poured his hosts along the Croatian and the Bosnian 
frontiers ; and in Augusi, 1788, after two fruitless assaults, 
in one of which 430 of his men were killed and wounded, 
he received by capitulation the fortress of Dubitzar, on 
the right bank of the Unna. On the 20th the Turks had 
attacked his camp, but were repulsed j after which he again 
ordered an immediate assault ; but, as it failed, he ordered 
the town to be fired, and it burned till the morning of the 
24th. He then opened several mines, and by the 25tli 
his sappers were within ten feet of the walls. The Turks 
then " capitulated to Marshal Loudon, whose principal 
terms were : — 

" That the officers might march out with swords, but 
their troops were to lay down all arms and surrender aa 
prisonei's of war. 

" That the women and children might go to Eoczaraca^ 



MARSHAL BARON LOUDON. 28^ 

attended by five Turkish soldiers, for whose return the 
commandant should be answerable." 

Novi-bazar, a Bosnian Sanjak, the capital of a province, 
w"ith its castle, next fell into his possession ; then Gradiska, 
a stronjr Turkish fortress which had been erected fifteen 
years before by French engineers, at the junction of the 
"Virbas with the Saave ; then Belgrade, the most important 
town and fortress on the Austrian frontier of the Turkish 
empire. Its citadel occupies a commanding position oa 
the summit of a precipitous rock which rises in the cen- 
tre of the streets and is surrounded by a lofty wall, a 
triple fosse with flanking towers, and an esplanade 400 
paces broad. These works were principally constructed 
by Benjamin Swinburne, a native of Staffordshire, wha 
had embraced Islamism, adopted the name of Mustapha^ 
and risen to high rank in the Turkish artillery. Led on- 
by Loudon, the Austrians overcame every obstacle, and 
captured this famous Belgrade. 

In that town he found a fine funeral monument of 
white marble, covered with Turkish inscriptions, ara- 
besqucd ornaments, and sculptured garlands of flowers. 
He had this great sarcophagus carefully taken to pieces- 
and sent to his estate of Hadersdorf, to form a tomb for 
himself. 

In this war of carnage, as it was justly named, for no 
quarter was given on either side, the Imperialists num- 
bered at first 218,000 bayonets and sabres ; but they were 
soon reduced to half that number by the resistance of the 
Turks. 

Neu-Orchova, a small town and fortress of Wallachia 
situated on an island on the Danube, was his last capture 
after he had defeated the Bashaw of Travernick and was- 
repulsed in turn from two practicable breaches ; but he 
reduced it by a regular siege; and with this ended the 
Turkish war, which he had conducted with glory to 
xVustria and ended with honour to himself 

In 1790 he returned to the army in Moravia. 

He was now seventy-four years of age, and his health 
was failing fast. During the latter part of his life he had 
been much afflicted with rheumatism, gout, and colic. 



290 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

the fruit of military toil and hardship. All these at- 
tacked him regularly every spring and autumn. 

On the 26th of June he dined with Prince Lichnowski, 
at Bohmisch Gratzen, and was seized on that night by a 
fever, from which he predicted he would never recover, and 
about the 6th of July he was in a dying state. Observing 
around his bed many of his old brother officers in tears, 
he endeavoured to console and reassure them by the calm- 
ness of his own demeanour. 

"I implore you," said he, "to unite true religion to 
that high courage which I know you to possess, and to 
defend your minds from the approaches of atheism. All 
the success I have had in this world I owe to my con- 
fidence in God, as well as the glorious consolation which I 
now experience, in this awful time, when I am so soon to 
appear before Him." On the 10th, he requested the 
sacrament, and begged the Marshals Colloredo and Botta 
to be present at the reading of his will, and to bear his 
dying blessing and remembrances to the old officers and 
soldiers who had served under him. Then perceiving his 
favourite nephew, Alexander Loudon, weeping at his bed- 
side, he said, — 

" Arise — be a man and a Christian — love God and your 
fellow-creatures." 

He lingered on until the 14th of July, when he expired 
in great agony. 

Thus died, in the year 1790, Field-Marshal Baron 
Loudon, one of the greatest generals of the eighteenth 
century. " It was but seldom that a smile was seen to 
unwrinkle his lofty forehead," says a writer of his own 
time. " He was as little acquainted with the real laugh 
as Cato. As to his character, he knew how to divereify 
it wonderfully. Loudon on horseback and at the head of 
an army appeared to be quite another man, and was 
indeed a complete contrast to Loudon in the country or 
the town. His conduct agreed perfectly with what his 
cold and reserved physiognomy announced, for he spoke 
but little, and slowly. From his early youth he constantly 
avoided the society of women ; he was uncommonly timid 
in their company, and was a very good husband. Accus« 



MAKSHAL BARON LOUDON. 291 

tomed to find himself punctually obeyed by thousands in 
the field, at the least sign indicated by him, he required 
the same docility of his vassals and servants, and he acted 
with severity to them — perhaps more than ought to liave 
been used to men who were unaccustomed to military disci- 
pline." 

As a souvenir of the many perils he had passed through, 
he carefully preserved at Hadersdorf a musket-ball which 
had been cut in two on the pommel of his saddle, and also 
his Croatian sabre, which had been struck from his hand 
by a bomb, and bent so that no armourer could ever 
straighten it. 

His remains were enclosed in a double cofiin, adorned 
by gorgeous mountings and handles, and were solemnly 
borne from Bbhmisch Gratzen to his estate of Haders- 
dorf, a small town of Lower Austria, near the Kiein- 
Kamp, and five miles west of Vienna. 

In the park he had once selected a spot shaded by 
many fine trees, under which he had expressed a wish to 
be buried ; but, on his return from the Turkish campaign, 
he selected another place, and planted it with shrubs and 
flowers in imitation of a Moslem sepulchre ; and this he 
was wont to term his Turkish Garden, for therein he had 
leconstructed the marble sarcophagus which had been 
conveyed from Belgrade. 

There he now lies in peace, shaded by some stately old 
trees and in the centre of a green meadow. His funeral 
monument, which is one of great magnificence, is securely 
walled round ; and among the sculpture with which the 
Austrian Government adorned it, there may still be 
traced the shield argent, charged with three escutcheons 
sable; the old heraldic cognizance which the Loudons of 
that ilk p^'-^ied on their pennons in the wars of th* 
f^cottish kin^s. 



u2 



292 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 



Count D'gerllir, 

CHAMBERLAIN OF THE EMPIRE. 

Were we to choose a hero for a military romance, he 
rould be Andrew O'Reilly, who bore the high reputation 
of being the first cavalry officer in the Austrian service. 

This distinguished Irish soldier of fortune, the last of 
the eleves of the Lacys and others whose achievements 
in the third Silesian war and the Turkish campaign have 
already been recorded, obtained the rank of Genei-al in 
the Austrian army, Chamberlain, and Commander of the 
Imperial and Military Order of Maria Theresa, with the 
rank of Colonel Proprietaire of the 3rd Regiment ol 
Light Horse. 

He was born in 1740, and was the second son of James 
O'Reilly, of Ballincough, in the county of Westmeath, 
and of Barbara, daughter of Thomas Nugent, Esquire, of 
Dysart (grand-daughter of Thomas, fourth Earl of West- 
meath). His brother Hugh was created a Baronet by 
George III., and subsequently assumed the name of Nu- 
gent. His only sister married Lord Talbot de Malahide. 

Entering the Imperial service early in life, O'Reilly 
filled in succession all the military grades save that of 
Field-Marshal ; but of those events in his stirring life 
which led to his elevation to a coronet, we barely afford 
a summary. One of the most important incidents in his 
early career is connected wiih his marriage ; and while it 
illustrates the manners of the last century, is worthy of 
notice, for the remnant of old romance and chivalry it 
displays. He and a brother officer, Count Klebelsberg, 
uncle of Francis Count de Klebelsberg, who, in 1831, was 
President of the Government of Lower Austria, were rivals 
for the hand of the Couutesa V/uyrlena, a rich and beauti- 



COUNT O'REILLY. 293 

ful Bohemian lieiress ; and aware that both could uot suc- 
ceed, they determined to solve the difficulty of selection by 
a combat cb Voutrance. The intended duel was, however, 
reported to the authorities, and both O'Reilly and Klebels- 
berg were placed under close arrest by the Director Genei-al 
of the High Police ; but, resolved to achieve their purpose, 
they secretly left Vienna, and travelled post together to 
Poland, and meeting in the neutral territory of Cracow, 
fouojht their remarkable combat. The duel lasted Ions;, 
lor both were perfect swordsmen, active, skilful, and 
wary ; but at length O'Peilly ran K?ebelsberg through 
the body, after receiving many dangerous wounds in his 
own person. 

The affections of the countess, with her hand and 
fortune, were the immediate reward of the soldier of 
fortune. 

Rejoining the army, he served with great brilliance in 
the war between France and Austria. The forces of the 
latter were commanded by the Archduke Charles. 

On the 14th June, 1800, he fought imder General 
Melas, at the battle of Marengo. "Melas," says IVI, 
Thiers, in his History of the Consulate and Empire, " placed 
General O'Reilly on the left, and Generals Kaim and 
Haddick on the right, to gain the road to Piaceuza, the 
object of so many efforts and the salvation of the 
Austrian army." 

On the 2nd December, 1805, that great day when -'the 
sun of Austerlitz arose," and eighty thousand Frenchmen, 
flushed by rapid conquests, by the capitulation of Ulm, 
and the recent capture of Vienna, met the Austro- 
Russian army in one of the bloodiest battles on record — 
a battle, which, as General Rapp has it, " was a veritable 
butchery, where w^e fought man to man, and so mingled 
together, that the infantry on either side dared not lire 
lest they should kill their own men" — the star of Napoleon 
bore all before it; and the French, though losing thirteen 
thousand men, totally routed their allied enemies, with 
the loss of thrice that number, taking all their colours, 
baggage, ammunition, and one hundred and twenty 
pieces of cannon. On that terrible day, the political 



294 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

result of which was an almost immediate cessation of 
hostilities between France and Austria, it was universally 
admitted that a succession of daring and brilliant charges 
made by the Light Dragoons of O'Reilly, "alone saved 
the Austrian army from total annihilation." 

The Emperor Alexander declined the overtures of 
Bonaparte, and renewed the war next year. The field of 
Eylau gave his Russians a partial revenge ; and ere long 
they reaped the fulness of it amid the flames of Moscow 
and the slaughter of Smolensko. 

On the 12th of May, 1809, O'Reilly, for his services at 
Austerlitz and elsewhere, was appointed Governor of 
Vienna, with a powerful garrison; and in a few days 
after, the Eagles of Napoleon were at its gates. Shut up 
in the city with the troops, the Archduke Ferdinand 
resolved to defend it, though the French had already 
stormed and carried all the suburbs. In vain were flags 
of truce sent in ; the bearers were not only refused ad- 
mittance, but, despite the orders of O'Reilly, were even 
maltreated, and in some instances massacred by the 
people. The bombardment followed, and soon Vienna 
was wrapped in flames ; but the Emperor Napoleon, being 
informed by O'Reilly that one of the archduchesses had 
remained in Vienna detained by illness, gave orders to 
cease firing. 

" Strange destiny of Napoleon 1" exclaims old General 
Bourrienne ; " this archduchess was Maria Louisa !" — 
the future Empress of France. 

On O'Reilly devolved the difficult and trying task of 
obtaining honourable terms foi- the capital of the Empire, 
from an enemy flushed by victory and the pride of » 
hundred hard-fought fields. He accordingly deputed the 
Prince of Dietrechstien, the Burgomaster, and the chief 
citizens to Napoleon, who inveighed bitterly against the 
obstinacy of the gallant Archduke Ferdinand, but lauded 
the coolness, bravery, and great presence of mind of the 
governor, whom he emphatically terms " le respectable 
General O'Jteilly^'' and accepted all the terms proposed br 
him ; but in the fourteenth clause stipulated that O'Reilly 
should be the bearer of the treaty to his master, to the 



COUNT O'REILLY. ' 295 

end thai he should honestly and faithfully lay before 
him the true position of the now half-conquered AustriaiL 
Empire — and this duty O'Eeilly ably performed. 

He served in the great battle fought near Aspern on 
the Marchfeld, during the 21st and 22nd of May, between 
the French under Napoleon, and the Austrians under 
the Archduke Charles. 

In the prince's plan of the attack " to be made upon 
the hostile army, on its march between Essling and 
Aspern," it was ordered " that the cavalr}^ brigade under 
the command of Yeesy will be attached to the second 
column, and the Regiment O'Reilly to the third." This 
regiment consisted of eight squadrons of Light DragoonSj 
and the column to which it was attached comprised 
cwenty-two battalions. 

O'Reilly, with his cavalry, followed the column which 
marched from Seiring, by the road of Sussenbrunn and 
T>reitenbe. Here O'Eeilly, with several troops of Light 
Horse and Chasseurs formed the advanced guard, which 
met the enemy's cavalry at three o'clock in the afternoon, 
near Hirschstettin, while the other columns of the Austrian 
army drew the French back upon their position between 
Esslingen and Aspern, and while Lieutenant-General 
Hohenzollern ordered up his batteries, and the battle 
became general on all sides. 

In close column of battalions, the line of the third 
column was advancing with great bravery, when the 
French cavalry fell upon them, sabre in hand, with such 
fury, that they were repulsed, and nearly lost their cannon. 
At this moment the regiments of Zach, Colloredo, Zetwitz, 
and the second battalion of the legion of the Archduke 
Charles, led by Lieutenant-General Brady, an Irish officer, 
^ demonstrated with unparalleled fortitude what the fixed 
determination to conquer or die is capable of effecting 
against the most impetuous attacks." 

The splendid cavalry of France turned both flanks of 
Brady's column, and penetrating between them, repulsed 
the Light Horse of O'Eeilly, who came up at full speed 
to succour the soldiers of his countryman. Surrounded, 
the Eegiment O'Eeilly were summoned to lay down their 



296 THE CAVALIEKS OP F011TU>'E. 

arms ; but a destructive fire of carbines was the answer to 
this degrading proposition, and the French cavahy gave 
way. 

The Regiment O'Reilly passed the night on the field 
of battle, which was lost by the Austrians. The market 
■town of Aspern, on the north side of the Danube, was 
destroyed, and the loss of the Imperialists was frightful. 

After a two days' conflict, there lay on that field the 
flower of the Austrian army ; 87 field-officers, 4199 sub- 
alterns and privates, 12 generals (including the Prince de 
Rohan), 663 oflScers, and 15,651 soldiers were wounded ; 
of these, Field-Marshal Webber, with 8 officers, and 320 
men were taken prisoners, with 3 pieces of cannon, 7 
powder waggons, 17,000 muskets, and 3000 corslets. The 
loss of the French was terrible ! 7000 men and an im- 
mense number of horses were buried on the field ; 29,773 
wounded men strewed the streets and suburbs of Vienna; 
hundreds of corpses, gashed and shattered, floated down 
the rapid Danube and were flung upon its shores, w^here 
they lay unburied and decaying, filling the air with pesti- 
lence and the place with horror. 

In October peace was signed at the camp of Schoen- 
brunn, and, divorcing the woman who had loved him 
^hen he had only his sword and his epaulettes, Napoleon 
espoused Maria Louisa of Austria ; and Prince Charles, 
who by his accumulated blunders at the battle of Aspern, 
had thrown away the fortunes of Continental Europe, 
received fiom his Imperial conqueror the Grand Riband 
of the Legion of Honour. O'Reilly came in for a full 
^hare of the honours and decorations which were showered 
upon the Austrian army. 

At the general peace of 1814 the Empire, exhausted by 
a war of tive-and-twenty years, reduced her vast military 
establishments to 5S regiments of the line, 12 battalions 
of chasseurs, and 5 garrison battalions — in all, 1044 com- 
panies of fusiliers, and 1 1 6 of grenadiers. The cavalry 
were reduced to 36 regiments of cuirassiers, light dra- 
goons, hulans and hussars. Of the third regiment of 
light horse O'Reilly was colonel and proprietor. He was 
also High Chamberlain of the Empire. 



COUNT O'REILLY. 297 

At this time Louis Count Taaffe, a noble of Irish 
parentage, was Second President of the Austrian High 
Court of Justice, and General Count O'Donnel was jNIili- 
tary Governor of Austrian Lombardy. One of the 
Emperor's most distinguished officers was General Count 
Nugent, who in the war of 1847-8 led 30,000 Austrian 
infantry to succour Marshal Radetzki, who was then op- 
posed to the troops of Charles Albert.'"^ Count Taali'e 
was a member of the new ministry formed on the 21st 
of March, in the year of the Austrian revolution ; but he 
retired from office shortly before the appearance of the 
chartered constitution on the 19th of April, 

O'Reilly lived to see Austria affected by the commo- 
tions which pervaded Europe after the French Revolu- 
tion of 1830, when the Duke of Modena and the Arch- 
duke of Parma were obliged to quit these states, and a 
formidable insurrection broke out in the Patrimony of St. 
Peter — an insurrection to quell which 18,000 Austrian 
troops w^ere marched towards the frontier ; but O'Reilly 
was too far advanced in years to draw his sword again in 
the service of the House of Hapsburg. He died in 
October, 1833, at Vienna, after attaining the patriarchal 
age of ninety-two. He had long survived his countess, 
and died childless. 

* Nugent, a field-marshal in 1858, commanded 25,000 Austrian 
troops at the funeral of Marshal Radetzki, and acted as cii-of 



29S THE CxVVALIEBS OF FORTUNE. 



KNIGHT OF ST. LOUIS, AND COLONEL OF THE IRISH BRIGADE. 

The life of this military wanderer presents, in his che- 
quered career, the curious anomaly of a general and his 
soldiers being received into the service of their native 
country and native monarch, against whom they had pre- 
viously fought with a bravery that too often gave the 
laurels of victory to his enemies. 

Count Daniel O'Connell was of the same family as the 
famous political agitator who bore his name, and he 
sprang from an old Milesian race who held the rank of 
Toparchs in their own province. He was the son of 
Daniel O'Connell of Derrynane, and of Mary, daughter 
of Duffe O'Donoghue, of Anwys in the county Kerry, 
Ireland, and was born at Derrynane Abbey, in 1742. 
At the early age of fifteen, like others whose fortunes 
I have recorded, he left his native country to seek 
ibreign military service, and in 1757 was appointed a 
Sub-Lieutenant of the Irish Brigade in the French ser- 
vice, in the battalion known as the Infantry regiment of 
O'Brien, or Lord Clare, and which bore the title of Clare 
until its dissolution, thirty-five years after. 

In the preceding year war had been declared between 
Franco and Britain respecting their mutual territorial 
claims in North America. The former prepared a vast 
military armament to carry on the strife; and in the 
army formed on the 12th July, 1759, to be led by the 
Marechal Princes of Conde and Soubise, were the Irish 
and Scottish Brigades ; and in the fcirmer was the Regi- 
ment of Clare, with which young O'Connell was serving 
as a subaltern. From this period, for some time, little is 
known of him, save that be served throughout the Seven, 



COUNT O'CONNELI* 29^ 

fears' War, and at its close, for his good conduct, was pro- 
moted into a new corps which had recently been embodied. 

In 1779, when France espoused the cause of America, 
and sought to harass the mother country in Europe, 
O'Connell was engaged in the expedition against Port- 
mahon, which is the principal town in Minorca, situated 
on a rocky promontory, difficult of access from tlie land- 
ward, and defended by Fort San Philipo, in Avhich there 
was a resolute garrison. O'Connell, with his new regi- 
ment, served under the Due de Crillon at the siege, and 
conducted himself with such honour as to be specially 
noticed. The operations were severe and protracted, 
but in three years the Spaniards and theii' allies recap- 
tured the whole island of Minorca, which at the peace of 
1763 had been formally ceded to Britain. 

In 1782, O'Connell served with the combined French 
and Spanish armament which blockaded Gibraltar, during 
that memorable siege which had commenced on the 12tli 
of Jainiary in the preceding year. Having shown consi- 
derable skill as an engineer at Minorca, he was one of 
the council-of-war appointed to assist the Chevalier 
d'Arcon in conducting the grand attempt in which France 
and Spain had resolved to try their full strength for the 
capture of that celebrated rock, the key of the Mediter- 
ranean ; and for this purpose, as already related in the 
memoir of the Lacys, 40,000 soldiers, with 200 pieces of 
cannon and 80 mortars, pressed the attack by land, while 
47 sail of the line, 10 battering ships, and a multitude of 
frigates, mounting 1000 guns and having 12,000 chosen 
soldiers added to their crews, lay before the fortress 
by sea — and in that fortress, to meet all this warlike 
preparation, w^ere only 7000 British soldiers ! 

The French army was commanded by Louis Duo de 
Crillon-Mahon, the representative of an ancient noble 
family in the Yaucluse, who had commenced his military 
career in the Grey musketeers, and served under Marshal 
Villars in Italy. He had direction of the whole attack ; 
his engineers were the most expert in Europe, and bi-ave 
volunteers came from all quarters to take part in a siegf 
which attracted the attention and raised the expectatioii 
of all Continental Europe. 



■300 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

As a member of the council-of-war, O'Conuell repeatedly 
opposed the plans of the Due de Crillon and of the Che- 
valier d'Arcon, and declared their system of attack 
'•* worthless ;" and the sequel, in the triumph of General 
Elliot, proved that his observations were correct. 

In the grand attack he accepted command of one of 
ihe floating batteries. 

Ten of these, mounting from ten to twenty-eight guns, 
liad been built under the orders of M. d'Arcon. Their 
bottoms were of solid timber, their sides were sheathed 
with wetted cork, and filled with damp sand between the 
timbers. They had sloping roofs of raw hides and net- 
work to receive the bombs, which thus exploded harm- 
lessly over the heads of the besiegers. These floating 
batteries were exposed during the whole time to that 
terrible fire of red-hot shot — a suggestion of General 
Boyd — which ultimately, by firing the gi'eat ship of 
Buenaventura de Moreno, struck the Spaniards with con- 
-fusion and dismay. 

O'Connell had one of his ears torn off by a cannon- 
'ball ; and by the explosion of a shell, which by its weight 
penetrated the roof of skins, he was covered with wounds 
and bruises of minor importance. 

His services, during this futile and disastrous siege, were 
-considered so valuable by the King of France, that, on 
the recommendation of the Due de Crillon, he was re- 
warded with the colonelcy of the Regiment de Salm- 
"Salm ; a German corps raised in the principality of that 
name ; but this post he held for a short period, being re- 
. moved to the regiment of Royal Swedish Infantry. 

After this, in 1787, the government of France ha\dng 
i resolved that the military economy of their army should 
undergo a complete revision and remodelling, appointed a 
military board, consisting of four generals and one colonel 
to prepare reports and recommend alterations where 
•necessary. The colonel chosen was O'Connell, who drew 
•lip a system of regimental economy, and a code of tactics, 
which were afterwards used with brilliant success against 
himself and his loyal comrades during the first campaigns 
• of the revolution. When the laboui's of the board ceased, 



COUNT O'CONNELL. 30 V 

he was appointed to the onerous situation of Inspector- 
General of Infantry, with the duty of regulating the new 
^miforms and equipment of the Line, when many altei-a- 
uons and improvements were adopted in 1791. 

He was succeeded as colonel of the Swedish regiment 
r;y Count Pherson, afterwards one of the principal agent? 
in the escape of Louis XVI. from Paris. 

O'Gonnell now enjoyed the reputation of being one o^ 
the most distinguished officers in France. 

Besides his very extensive knowledge of mathematics 
and military strategy, says a French writer, he was well 
versed in the study of languages ; and although Latin 
and Greek were to him alike familiar, he spoke with 
equal fluency French, English, Italian, and German. He 
had conceived a great predilection for the Erse {gallique) 
of the mountains of Kerry, and he was never more happy 
than when he could converse in this dear old idiom, of 
which he could so well appreciate the beauties."' 

Now came the fatal, the culminating, point of the 
once splendid monarchy of France — the dark days of the 
Revolution ; of the captivity and death of the weak, but 
unhappy Louis ; of the flight or destruction of his nobles. 
Before the final catastrophe of the royal execution, a pro- 
posal was made by the National Assembly, which deeply 
interested Count O'Connell and others who had made 
France the land of their adoption. This was the intended 
expulsion from her soil of all foreign officers and soldiers^ 
who had served King Louis, including Irish, Scots, and 
Switzers. While this ungenerous measure was being 
debated, the gallant Duke of Fitzjames, in February, 1791, 
addressed to Louis XYI. a letter on behalf of the exiles ; 
and this document is so remarkable in its tenor, that I 
may bo pardoned in quoting from it one or two paragraphs. 
After briefly and modestly stating tlie services rendered 
by his father and grandfather to the line of St. Louis, he 
thus advanced the claims of the Irish in France : — 

" Sire, my grandfather came not alone into France ! His 
brave companions are now mine, and the dearest friends 

♦ Biograjphie UniverseUe, 



302 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

of my heart ! He was accompanied by Thirty Thousand 
Irishmen, who abandoned home, fortune, and honour to 
follow their unfortunate king. For the descendants of 
those brave men, whom your ancestors deemed so worthy 
of protection because they had been faithful to their so- 
vereign, I now entreat the same bounty from the great- 
gi-andson of Louis XIY. It is reported tliat the National 
Assembly propose disbanding the Irish regiments as foreign 
troops. The blood they have shed in the cause of France 
ought to have procured them the right of being denizens 
of that kingdom, even though their capitulation had not 
entitled them to that privilege. 

" Sire, permit me to lay at your Majesty's feet the ardent 
wish of the Irish regiments, who are as much attached to 
France by gratitude as formerly they were to the House 
of Siuart by love and duty. If the Assembly now reject 
their services, they implore your Majesty's recommenda- 
tion to the prince of your family now reigning in Spain, 
presuming to assure you that the present will be worthy 
of being made by a King of France, and of being favour- 
ably received by a prince of your royal race. 

'' Fidelity and valour are their titles to recommenda- 
tion ! Of the former they expect an authentic testimo- 
nial from the French nation, as they have never once 
failed in their duty during a century, and wherever 
they have fought their valour has been conspicuous in 
battle. 

" Sire, I entreat you to listen to their request ; for my- 
self I ask no compensation — for me there is none ! The 
honour of commanding them cannot be repaid. It secures 
my glory, as to lead them against a foe ensures immediate 
victory !" 

But this spirited and touching letter failed to stay the 
popular clamour against these military strangers in the 
sequel. 

In July the Assembly decreed that the standards of the 
Irish, German, and Liegoise infantry should be the tri- 
colour, inscribed " Discipline and obedience to the law ;" 
but when the princes, J\lonsieur of France (or Comte de 
Provence) and Charles Philippe, the Count d'Artois, fled 



COUNT o'co:sxELL. 303 

to Coblentz, the formal defection of several Irish officers 
hastened the destruction of the old brigade of immortal 
memory ; and with it, after the 10th of August, disappeared 
the ancient Swiss, German, Italian, Scottish, and Cata- 
Ionian regiments of the monarchy. 

During the crumbling of that monarchy, O'Connell, 
though in secret communication with the princes at 
Coblentz, lingered in Paris until the close of 1791, wheu 
that strange convention was held at Pilnitz between the 
JEmperor Leopold and the Prussian king, who formed a 
league to invade France and remodel its government. In 
a letter from Pavia, dated 6th July, the Emperor had 
already openly avowed his intentions in this new war, and 
invited all European powers to co-operate with him. At 
this crisis the French government proposed to place 
O'Connell at the head of one of their many armies levied 
to meet this European combination ; but the count, 
despite the earnest recommendations of Carnot and of his 
friend the celebrated General Dumouriez, declined ; and 
then, unable to withstand the issue of the suspicions which 
this refusal excited in Paris after the terrible 10th of August, 
1792, when the attack of the Tuileries and massacre of the 
Swiss took place, he secretly left the city, and repairing 
to the princes, offered to them his sword and fealty at 
Cobientz; which, being within the Prussian frontier, 
became the head-quarters of all those emigrants and 
Prussian troops destined to form the army of the Prince 
of Conti, who vainly hoped to restore the line of St. Louis 
to the throne of his forefathers. His chief aid-de-camp 
was the Comte de Macarthy, an emigrant officer of dis- 
tinction, a marshal-de-camp of horse in 1791. 

O'Connell, relinqiiishing his higher claims among the 
crowd of noble applicants for service, accepted the com- 
mand of a regiment as colonel, and left nothing undone 
to improve its discipline and efficiency, for his whole 
*,nergies and enthusiasm were devoted to the reconstitu- 
tion of the French monarchy. 

The first of the French troops to proffer their loyalty, 
on this occasion, were the Scottish and Irish soldiers of 
the old liegiment de Berwick. The depot of this corps 



304 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

•was then quartered at the strong town of Givet, on the 
frontiers of France, under the command of Sir Charles 
MacCarthy-Lyragh, who immediately marched his men to 
Coblentz, and joined the battalion. Sh* Charles after- 
wards passed into the British service, when he was made 
a Colonel and Governor of Senegal, where in 1824 he 
fought a battle with the Ashantees, by whom he was slain 
and belieaded. The loyalty of the Irish brigade met with 
a warm response from the fugitive princes. " This offer," 
replied Monsieur to the deputation who came to proffer 
fealty, '* will mitigate the sufferings of the king, who 
will receive from you with pleasure the same mark oi 
fidelity which James II. received from your ancestors. 
This double epoch ought for ever to furnish a device for 
the Regiment de Berwick ! It will lienceforth be seen 
upon your colours; every faithful subject will there read 
his duty, and behold the model he ought to imitate." 

" The colours of Berwick," added Charles Philippe the 
Comte d'Artois, " are, and always will be, in the path to 
honour, and we will march at their head !"* 

The king perished, and then followed the campaign ol 
1793, a period most disastrous to the emigrants ; but 
amid all the slaughter and merciless butchery, with which 
the republicans inspired the war — a war, to maintain 
which, the fiery zeal of Carnot enrolled no less thsm four- 
teen armies, mustering 1,400,000 men — O'Connell led 
his battalion with honour to himself and to the cause he 
served, till all hope was lost, and then with others he 
fled to England in the beginning of 1794. 

Among those condemned by Robespierre's tribunal in 
that year, were two distinguished officers of tlie Irish 
brigade — General O'Moran, who defended Dunkirk 
against the Duke of York ; and John O'Donoghue, 
Genei-al de Brigade in the Army of the Rhine. 

At the same time were condemned, M. Murdoch, a 
Scotsman in the service of the Comte de Montmorin; and 
W. Newton, an English colonel of the DmgoOn Regiment 
de Libert^, and formerly an officer in the Russian service. 

• Scoti' Magazine, } 791. 



COUNT O'CONNELL. 305 

In reduced circumstances O'Conneli reached Loudon, 
where he resided for a time in comparative obscurity ; 
and where, for many reasons, his residence was far from 
being a pleasant one. Still, undiscouraged by the aspect 
of affairs in France, and by the numerous bloody defeats 
and massacres sustained by the emigrant troops and other 
supporters of the Boui^bons, he took a warm interest in 
the attempts meditated in 1794; but fresh conflicts 
seemed only to fire the zeal of the republicans anew, till 
the French armies, following their victories, drove their 
enemies across the Meuse and then beyond the Ehine ; 
after which they penetrated into Holland, revolutionized 
it, and succeeded in detaching Prussia from its alliance 
with Britain. 

At this epoch O'Conneli laid before William Pitt the 
plan of a new campaign, which so pleased that minister, 
that he made the count, then in his fifty-second year, an 
ofier of military service under the British government. 
This he at once accepted, and proposed to form a new 
brigade to be named tlie Irish, and to be raised princi- 
pally from remnants of the regiments of Clare, Lally, 
Dillon, Berwick, &c., emigrant officers, and men who re- 
presented the old brigade of King James ; but here 
O'Coimeirs religion, which was strictly Catholic, prevented 
him, in those days of intolerance, prior to the Emancipa- 
tion Act, attaining in the British service a higher rank 
than Colonel ; and this rank he held till the day of his 
death. 

The brigade consisted of six battalions, each of the 
strength usual on a war establishment ; but O'Conneli 
had the mortification to find himself gazetted by the 
Horse Guards Colonel of the fourth regiment iustead of 
the first, to which he was justly entitled, by his previous 
position and general military character. 

His commission was dated 1st October, 1794.* 

The list of colonels was as follows : — 

1st Regiment — the Duke of Fitzjames. 

!2nd Kegiment — Anthony, Count Walsh de Serrant. 

♦ War- Office Records— communicated 



S06 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE, 

3rd Regiment — Honourable Henry Dillon. 

4th Regiment — Count Daniel O'Connell, 

5th Regiment — Charles, Viscount Walsh de Seriant, 

6th Regiment — James Henry, Count Conway.* 

Several of his old friends were appointed to the 
corps ; among these were Bartholomew, Count O'Mahoney, 
Colonel, 1st January, 1801 ; John O'Toole, Colonel, 
1805 ; and Colonel James O'Moore, who was appointed 
Major-General in 1801. 

This brigade, which was embodied under circumstances 
so singular, instead of being sent to fight upon the con- 
tinent of Europe, as O'Connell and his brother emigrants 
had fondly anticipated, after many changes in its consti- 
tution and organization, was ordered to Nova Scotia, to 
Cape Breton, and to the then pestilential West India 
Isles. The snows of America and the burning sun of the 
tropics soon had a fatal efiect upon these unfortunate 
wanderers, and they were nearly all swept away by disease 
and death. 

Of the six regiments, only thirty-four officers of all ranks 
were alive in 1818, on the Irish half-pay. 

On the 25th December, 1797, O'Connell, weary of a 
service so heartless, and so little conducive to the welfare 
of the cause he loved so much, retired upon the full-pay 
of colonel unattached, and returned horae.t 

In 1802 he profited by the Treaty of Amiens, when 
peace was negotiated between Great Britain and France, 
to return to the latter ; but the frail bond of unity was 
soon broken, and he was comprehended in the harsh 
decree which seized, as prisoners of war, all British sub- 
jects remaining in France. 

At the restoration of the Bourbons in 1814 he regained 
his liberty, and Louis XYIII. restored to him his rank 
of General, and with it the Colonelcy of a regiment and 
the pension and Grand Cross of St. Louis, which he enjoyed 
with his retired full pay as a British Colonel. This was 
after the decree of the 16th July, by which the whole of 
the old army was disbanded, and the command conferred 

• War-Offic« BeoMft^, • f Ibid, 



COUNT O'CONNELL. 307 

upon Marshal Macdonald, who remodelled a new army 
from the wreck of Napoleon's veterans. 

O'Connell lived in tranquillity and honour, a remnant 
of other days and of old romantic sympathies, until 1830, 
when he was again deprived of his Erench emoluments 
for his unwavering fidelity to Charles X. and the elder 
branch of the Bourbons. After this he retired to his 
chateau at Meudon, near Blois, where he died, on the 
9 til of July, 1833, in the ninety-first year of his age, the 
oldest Colonel of the British army, and the senior general 
of the French. 

Such was the chequered career of one of the last of the 
brave old Irish Brigade. 



308 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNBi 



Stephen James Joseph Macdonald, Marshal of France 
and Duke of Tarentum, was the son of Neil MacEachin 
Macdonald (a gentleman sprung from the branch of the 
Clanranald in Uist), who served in France as a h'eutenant 
in the Scottish Regiment of Ogihde, to which he had 
been appointed by the recommendation of Prince Charles 
Edward Stuart, whom he had served bravely and loyally 
•even after the close of his disastrous campaign in Scot- 
land, and whom he had followed into exile after materially 
contributing to that deliverance which was efiected by 
the celebrated Flora Macdonald. He was one of the 
hundred and thirty Highlanders who gathered on the 
shore of Loch nan Uamh after the horrors of Culloden, 
and embarked with Prince Charles for France. 

Neil MacEachin (i.e., the son of Hugh) had been a 
preceptor in the family of his chief, Clanranald, and being 
originally designed for the Catholic Church, had been 
educated at the Scottish College in Paris. He spoke 
French with great fluency, and to the exiled prince proved 
a faithful adherent, friend, and solace, in all his wanderings ; 
and when Charles was so ungenerously committed to a 
dungeon at Vincennes by order of the French govern- 
ment, his captivity was shared alone by the brave islesman 
from Uist. According to Mr. Chambers, there is every 
reason to believe that he was the author of a little work 
entitled Alexis, in which he preserved a minute record 
of the prince's wanderings and dangers in the Western 
Isles of Scotland. 

His son, the future Marshal of the Empire, was born 
on the 17th of November, 1765, in the old fortified town 
of Sedan, in the departement of the Ardennes. 



MARSHAL MACDONALD. 309^ 

Dostining him for tlie profession of arms, he had him 
educated with the greatest care, and in his nineteenth 
year enrolled him as a cadet in the Legion of Maillebois, 
which was to enter Holland, and second a revolutioii, 
there — a movement neutralized by the influence of Prussia. 

In 1784 young Macdonald was appointed a Sub-lieu- 
tenant in Dillon's Regiment, a battalion of the Irish 
Brigade, which now included in its rank many Scottish^ 
emigrants and their descendants ; and in this corps he 
remained a subaltern until the Revolution in 1792, when 
his colonel, the brave, loyal, and unfortunate Dillon, was 
murdered at Lisle, where his body was literally torn tO' 
pieces by the revolted soldiers and infuriated mob. 

Although, like the 4th Hussars and the Regiment of 
Berwick, Dillon's battalion emigrated entire and joined 
the fugitive French princes, Macdonald remained in 
France ; not because he did not share the loyal sentiments 
of his comrades, but because he loved the beautiful 
Mademoiselle Jacob, whose father had joined the popular 
party against the monarchy. This lady he afterwards 
married ; and the influence of her family led him to em- 
brace, or at least to adopt, the principles of the revolu- 
tionists, while he avoided their crimes and excesses. 

The new government soon discovered that Macdonald 
was a bold, active, and intelligent officer, and at once gave 
him employment. He made the first campaign of the- 
revolutionaiy war as Stafi*-major, under de Bournonville, 
and served afterwards in the same capacity with General 
Dumourier, acquitting himself so much to the satisfaction 
of these distinguished leaders, that, on the 1st of March,^ 
1793, he was appointed Colonel of the Regiment de 
Picardie, the second regiment of the old French line., 
which was then in garrison at Thionville; and this ancient 
corps (which was originally raised by Charles IX. ia 
1562) he commanded in the first campaign in Belgium. 

He was sincerely attached to Dumourier ; but, on the 
defection of that general from the Republic, after hia 
fruitless attempts on behalf of the king, his retreat to 
the camp at Maulde, and the attempt to assassinate him 
on the 5th April, Macdonald did not accompany him ia 



310 THE CAVALIERS OF FOrvTUNE. 

hiB fliglii, to the Aiistrians, but remained with the army, 
in which he was soon after named a General of Brigade. 
Under the celebrated Pichegreii he served with tliis rank 
in the Army of the North against the combined forces of 
Britain and Austria, and particularly signalized himseli" 
at Werwick and Comines. 

The column of Pichegreu consisted of fifty thousand 
men. It penetrated to Courtrai, which was surrendered 
by a garrison that found it indefensible. Macdonald v;as 
next at the investment of Menin on the Lys, where a 
iJrmidable resistance was made. The battle before this 
place lasted from eight a.m., until four in the afternoon, 
when the Germans, who had advanced to the relief, 
retired, and left Menin to its fate. A few months after 
saw all the Austrian Netherlands oveiTun by the victorious 
French, and the allies who had come to protect the pro- 
vince retiring in disorder beyond the Meuse. On this 
retreat the British and Hanoverians were particularly 
pressed by Macdonald, who followed them into Holland. 

At the passage of the Meuse a Scottish officer named 
Macdonald came to Pichegreu's army with a flag of tinice, 
and during the parley — 

" You have," said he, '' among you a general of my 
name ; we wish much to take him prisoner." 

" Have a care, monsieur," replied a French officer, 
** that he does not take you.'' 

And next day this officer, with a party, was nearly 
captured by the column of Macdonald.* 

The passage of the Waal on the ice, under the heavy 
batteries of Nimeguen, when leading the right wing of 
the Army of the North, was one erf Macdonald's most 
brilliant achievements. 

* " General Macdonald, who has come forward with so much idat 
as commander of a French column, is the descendant of a Mr. Mac- 
donald of Argyleshire. His uncle is Mr. Macdonald of Kinloch- 
moidart. He preserves his clannish aflfections, and in the campaign 
of Pichegreu in Flanders and Holland, having command of a brigade 
which had to press on a British brigade, where he discovered a 
namesake, he supplied his countryman during the memorable retreat 
with every comfort which a camp could aSord."— Edinburgh JTerald, 
loth January, 1799. 



MARSHAL MACDONALD. 311 

After many desultory movements, the discomfited allies 
had taken up a position beyond this river, which is a 
branch of the Rhine, and contested the passage with the 
French during the severe winter of 1794. The stream 
^v^as a mass of ice, as the frost was unusually intense ; 
thus the STifFerings of the soldiers were great. 

Resolved to avail themselves of the advantage which 
these sufferings gave them, the French had made repeated 
attempts to force the passage of the river. On the night 
of the 26th December, when an unusual gloom had 
settled over the frozen stream and snow-chid scenery, 
Pichegreu, with all his forces, advanced towards the 
boundary with such rapidity that he lost several cannon 
and soldiers. Next day he ventured on the ice and the 
swamps that bordered it, making a general assault upon 
the posts of the allies. Macdonald, with the right wing, 
pushed boldly between Fort St. Andre and the walls and 
batteries of the ancient town of Nimeguen, in which 
there lay a strong garrison. His orders were " to act as 
an army of observation, and prevent the British and 
Germans from supporting the Dutch, as the main attacks 
were to be made by the left and centre." 

The latter, numbering 16,000 bayonets, crossed the 
Meuse in three columns, near the village of Driel, and 
invested Fort St. Andre and the fortifications in the Isle 
of Bommel ; while Macdonald achieved with signal success 
the passage elsewhere, and formed his battalions in position 
beyond the frozen stream. Taken by surprise, the inert 
Dutch soldiers in the Bommeler-waard made but a show 
of resistance. They were driven out by the charged 
bayonet, and 600 of them were captured. 

The French left wing advanced towards Breda with 
equal success, and stormed the lines between that city and 
Gertnidenbergin Northern Brabant ; forced the entrench- 
ments at Capellan in Gueldreland, and stormed Waspick. 
In this series of reverses the allied British, Dutch, and 
Austrians lost one hundred pieces of cannon, and had 
more than a thousand prisoners taken ; while the French 
securely established themselves far beyond the contested 
river. Ere long all resistance to their progress ceased ; 



312 THE CATAIilERS OF PUKTUNE. 

every fortress, city, and castle submitted to them in suc- 
cession, till the desperation of his affairs compelled the 
Stadtholder to seek refuge in Britain, while his allies re- 
treated by the way of Amersfort to cross the Tssel, 
abandoning Holland to its fate, and to the armies of 
Pichegreu and Macdonald. 

For his services in this campaign the latter was now 
made a General of Division. Every oflBcer uiider whom 
he served mentioned him with honour in their reports to 
the Directory; but while, with that openness which is 
characteristic of soldiers, his comrades thus rendered every 
justice and tribute to his worth and bravery, the sus- 
picious representatives of the people, who followed the 
Army of the North, and thrust their officious counsels 
upon its generals, occasioned him constant anxiety. Their 
dislike of his Scottish name was never concealed, and his 
natural frankness unfortunately laid him but too open to 
their insidious attacks ; till ultimately their animosity was 
gratified by the Directory depriving him of his command. 
Of this injustice Pichegreu complained bitterly, and said, 
" My army will soon become disorganized, if thus wantonly 
deprived of its best officer." 

" We have dismissed Macdonald," was the coarse reply 
of the Deputy St. Just, " because neither his face nor his 
name are republican ; but we will restore him, Pichegreu, 
to thee, and with thy head shalt thou answer for him." 

This opinion of the Committee of Public Safety so far 
influenced the Directory, that, until he replaced Oham- 
pionnet in Italy, Macdonald was never entrusted with an 
independent command. Soon after this mollification in 
Holland, the convention for a peace between France and 
Austria was held at licoben, and on its conclusion he 
repaired to Cologne, and, quitting the army of the Rhine, 
joined that of Italy, where the bright star of Napoleon 
was now in the ascendant. By the nature of his frontier 
service Macdonald had hitherto little or no correspondence 
with the future Emperor, who having also imbibed the 
Buspicions of the Directory, was long in discovering the 
worth or relying on the fidelity of the • only Scottish 
soldier in his service. Macdonald appeared in Italy too 



MArvSllAli MACDOXALD. 313 

late to bear any part in the first events of the campaign 
of 1797, when the armies of the aggressive republic 
marched to spread their new political principles through- 
out the Italian peninsula; but in the following year he 
was at the invasion of the Papal States, with the terrible 
Massena and with Berthier, who proclaimed the republic 
at Rome, on which the Pope fled to Florence. One of 
the early measures of the French generals was the sup- 
pression of the English, Scottish, and Irish colleges, all the 
effects in which were seized and the students dispei^scd. 

To the Pope they sent a tricoloured cockade and the 
offer of a pension, to which he made the following 
reply:— 

" I acknowledge no uniform save that with which the 
Church has adorned me. My life is at your disposal, but 
my soul is beyond your power. I cannot be ignorant of 
the hand whence the scourge proceeds which chastises the 
sheep and afflicts the pastor for the errors of his flock ; but 
I submit to the Divine will. Your pension I need not. 
A staff and scrip are sufficient for an old man who must 
pass the remainder of his days in sackcloth and ashes. 
Rob, pillage, burn as you please, and destroy the monu- 
ments of antiquity, hut religion you cannot destroy: it 
will, in defiance of your efforts, exist to the end of 
time I" 

Macdonald's Scottish surname was a puzzle to the 
Italians, who styled him Maldonaldo, Mardona, and every 
possible variety of the original. After occuppng the- 
States of the Church, and leaving Macdonald Avith his 
corps to overawe them, the French armies, whose line of 
march was everywhere marked by flames, plunder, and 
barbarity, advanced into Naples to expel the old Bourbon 
king, and erect an affiliated republic on the ruins of his 
throne. On this service our hero commanded under 
Championnet. Prior to tnis he had been charged with 
the duty of repressing the insurrections which broke out 
among the Romans, who massacred or assassinated the 
French soldiers whenever an opportunity of doing so 
occurred. The most serious of these risings was at Froi- 
sinone, a village in the valley of the Apennines. This he 



514 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

-suppressed with great severity, and, to strike terror into 
tlie peasantry, shot all prison ei^s taken in arms. The 
barbarities of the French, during their brief ascendency, 
are stUl remembered with horror in Italy. They and 
their partisans hunted and destroyed the Neapolitan 
royalists like wild beasts, and made a desei*t of all Apulia. 
It was in this province that Ettore Caraffa, Conti di 
Kuvo, and heir of the Duke of Andria, joined the invaders 
of his native country, and, after storming and reducing to 
ashes Andria, a prosperous and populous city in the 
province of Bari, he was so extolled by the Directory for 
his generous republicanism, that " when General Broussier 
carried the town of Trani by storm, Caraffa recommended 
that it should be burned also — and burned it was, with 
nearly all that were in it — the wounded and the dead, 
with those that were living and unhurt. They made, in 
fact, a hell of all that smiling Adriatic coast long before 
Cardinal Rufib had passed the first defile in the Calabrias." 

At Froisinone the Roman insurgents murdered the son 
of the Consul Mathei merely because his father was at the 
head ©f the new government. Macdonald offered from 
fifty to five hundred piastres for the chiefs of the insur- 
rection, dead or alive. He issued a proclamation to the 
Romans inviting them to obedience and respect for the 
new authorities put over them, as being the only means 
of raising the Roman Republic to the rank she should 
occupy; and he concludes thus: " The great nation wills 
it so, and its will must be executed. — Macdonald." 

Towards the end of 1798, as Commander-in-chief of the 
Roman territory, he ordained the Consulate to raise two 
regiments of horse and a battalion of infantry in each 
department. 

The Court of Naples had now been subverted ; under 
the protection of a British fleet and army, the king 
retired to Sicily, and a republic was supposed to be 
quietly established at the extremity of the peninsula, 
when the brave Calabrese, a race of hardy mountaineers, 
who were living in wild places in all the simple civiliza- 
tion of thi-ee centuries ago, rose in arms, and, uniting 



MARSHAL MACDONALD. 315 

with the Apulians from the plains, poured against the 
French in tumultuary hordes — half robbers and wholly 
patriots. Then began a war of torture and extermina- 
tion. These new insurgents demanded a general from their 
foolish and feeble king ; but, instead of a soldier, he sen< 
them a priest — a man of peace to oppose armies led by such 
men as Championnet, Macdonald, Berthier, and Massena ! 

This was the celebrated Cardinal Ruffo, a descendant 
of the ancient princes of Kuffo-Scilla, whose now ruined 
castle crowns that rock so famed in ancient story, and 
opposite to the fabled whirlpool upon the Sicilian shore. 
In a remote corner of Calabria he unfurled the banner of 
Bourbon, with the cry of " Viva Ferdinand and our Holy 
Faith !" 

This brought to the muster-place thousands, who swore 
upon their knives, daggers, crosses, and relics, to clear 
their native land of those lawless Jacobins and infidel 
republicans who were violating and desecrating everything, 
whether sacred or profane. The mountain robbers, who 
knew well the secret passes of that romantic and beautiful 
country — men who under their own government had sub- 
sisted by rapine and slaughter, led the van of the new 
movement. The cardinal cared little for the morals of 
liis followers. Provided they were stanch, brave, good 
marksmen, and well armed, he received them all with an 
apostolical benediction, and left the rest to Providence and 
gunpowder. He marched at their head direct for Naples, 
where the French army under Championnet was cantoned ; 
and, as he advanced, his wild and tumultuary army was 
increased, in every town and valley through which he 
marched, by sturdy peasants armed with muskets, daggers^ 
and weapons of every description. 

The fury with which these irregular hordes, clad in 
their picturesque costume, their Italian hats, and shaggy 
zaramaras, assailed Championnet at Naples, with the 
advance of another column under General JNIack from 
another point, forced Macdonald to march with his 
division, four thousand strong, from Kome, and retire to 
Ottricoli, a small town on a hill near the Tiber, about 



316 THE CAVALIEIIS OF FORTUNE. 

thirty-sLc miles distant. He left a garrison in the Castle of 
St. Angelo, which was summoned by Mack to surrender. 
He sent a copy of this document, which was imperious in 
its tenor, to General Championnet, who empowered Mac- 
donald to reply, which he did in the following terms : — 

Head- QUARTERS, Monterozi, 29th November, 1798. 

" The Commander-in-chief, sir, 'has sufficient confidence 
in me to recognise as his own the reply which I make to 
your letter of the 28th November. I well know that he 
has not given any answer to your lettei's concerning the 
evacuation of the forts and strong places ; and one of these, 
we consider the Castle of St. Angelo. The silence of con- 
tempt alone was due to your insolent menaces on this 
subject, and this was the only answer that could be ex- 
pected consistently with the dignity of the French name. 
You mention a regard for treaties, and yet you invade the 
territory of a Eepublic in alliance with France, and do so 
without provocation, and without its having given you 
the least reason for such conduct. 

** You have attacked the French troops, who trusted iu 
the most sacred defences — the law of nations and the secu- 
rity of treaties. 

" You have shot at our flags of truce which were pro- 
ceeding from Tivoli to Vicavero, and you have made the 
French garrison at Rieti prisoners of war. 

" You have attacked our troops on the heights of Terni^ 
nnd yet you do not call that a declaration of war ! 

" Force alone, sir, constrained us to retire from Rome 
(and you, sir, know better than any one the truth of what 
I say), that the conquerors of Europe will avenge such 
proceedings ! At present, I confine myself merely to 
stating our injuries ; the French army will do the rest. 
I declare to you, sir, that I place om* sick, Yalville the 
commissary of war, and the other Frenchmen who have 
remained at Rome, under the care of all the soldiers whom 
you command. If a hair of their heads be touched, it 
shall be a signal for the death of the whole Neapolitan 
army ! The French Republican soldiers are not assassins ; 
but the Neapolitan generals, the officers and soldiers who 



MARSHAL MACDONALD. 317 

were taken prisoners of war, on the day before yesterday, 
on tlie heights of Terni, shall answer with their heads for 
the safety of my wounded. Your summons to the com- 
mander of Fort St. Angelo is of such a nature, that I hava 
made it public, in order to add to the indignation and to 
the horror which your threats inspire, and wliich we 
despise as much as we think there is little to be dreaded 
from them. 

" Macdonald.** 

In his position at Civita Castellana, near Ottricoli, ho 
was attacked by Mack with great determination. Cham- 
pionnet, in his despatch, states tliat the enemy were forty 
thousand strong, and advanced in five columns. " General 
Macdonald, surrounded on all sides, gave proof of his 
great talents. He received the attack with that courage 
which distinguishes the man of firm character, and by his 
able dispositions entirely disconcerted the enemy." His 
advanced guard, under Kellerman, consisted only of three 
squadrons of the 19th chasseurs a cheval, the first bat- 
talion of the 11th regiment, and two pieces of flying artil- 
lery. This handful of brave fellows routed Mack's first 
column, slew four hundred, and took fifteen pieces of 
cannon, fifty caissons, and two thousand prisoners, while 
they had but thirty killed. 

The Italians of De Mert retired to the heights of Calvi, 
ji steep mouoHin range, where, after a midniglit march, 
during a severe December storm, IMacdonald surrounded 
and attacked them a few days after, and by a flag of truco 
summoned them to capitulate. To this they made some 
ridiculous propositions, but he sent the following ulti- 
matum : — 

"The column shall surrender prisoners at discre ion, or 
be put to the sword !" 

On this they surrendered at once to the number or five 
thousand, with all their arms, fifteen standards, eight guns, 
and three hundred horses. Among the prisoners were 
the Mai-shal De Mert and Don Oarello. After this, he 
returned to Eome, re-established the Rt-public, aiid hen 
taking the route to Capua, followed Mack's Neapohrans, 



318 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

who fled before him. Mack was an Austrian general whci 
had entered the service of Ferdinand of Naples to organize 
the patriots. For this purpose he had brought with him 
from Vienna fourteen experienced officers. 

On the march to Capua Macdonald's soldiers sufferer 
greatly from the constant rain and storms of snow, by the 
overflow of the mountain torrents, the destruction of all 
the bndgeh, ana Dy tne riliew ol tn^ ai meu peasantry, who 
mercilessly slew every straggler. Th ' —^-est men in the 
Neapolitan army were the moii^^*- ''^ ^»H..vtitti ; and many 
of these romantic desperadoes, ^v . .,. ai'med bands, re- 
ceived the commission of colonel, and were decorated with 
knightly orders. 

Fra Diavolo, a brigand by profession, was a colonel in 
the infantry, and cavaliere of San Constantino ; the Abate 
Proni, a ferocious monk of the Abruzzi ; Gaetano Mam- 
mone, a miller from Sora ; and Benedetto Mangone — three 
outlaws and brigands, covered themselves with distinc- 
tion in this horrible war against the French ; but Bene- 
detto was a veritable monster. " He never spared the 
life of a Frenchman who fell into his power ; and it is 
said that he butchered with his own hand four hundred 
Frenchmen and Neapolitan republicans ; and that it was 
his custom to have a human head placed upon the table 
when he dined, as other people would have a vase of 
flowers." 

In March, 1799, a picquet of sixty Polish soldiers was 
captured between Capua and Fondi by the Calabi-ese, who 
put every one of them to death. In the Campagua 
Frenchmen were roasted alive by the peasantry, or tied 
naked to trees and left to be devoured by dogs and 
wolves. Stragglers were destroyed by every means bar- 
barity could devise. 

The King of Naples, who had come from Sicily, fled 
again ; and General Mack, before he was blocked up in 
Capua, wrote in these terms : — 

" Sire, of forty thousand men with whom I entered the 
Boman territory, only twelve thousand remain ; and, of 
these, many are going over daily to the French." 

Macdonald, \\ith Championnet, laid sie;a:e *w Caajua, 



MARSHAL MACDONALU JJll^ 

"jiliore Mack made a vigorous resistance and repulsed 
them ; but the attack was i-enewed with fresh fury ; the 
city was won by assault, and the remains of the Nea- 
politan army, who had gathered courage from despair, 
and whom shame for past defeats inspired "with a glow of 
double vengeance, perished under the bayonets of the 
French. Their bodies choked the bed of the Volturno ; 
and for six leagues from thence the road to Naples was 
strewed with their dead and dying, till even the con- 
querors grew tired of slaughter. When Mack yielded 
himself a prisoner of war to the General of Division, he 
proffered his sword, a handsome weapon, which had been 
presented to him by the King of Great Britain in 1795. 

Champion net laughed, and returned it to him, saying — 

" Keep your sword, M. le General, the laws of the 
Republic prohibit the use of British manufactures." 

At this time the rage of the French army against their 
peculating commissaries was great, for they htt*\ buffered 
severely by the scarcity of provisions ; but Crtainpionnet 
and Macdonald skilfully turned this discontent against 
the enemy. 

" Soldiers," they exclaimed, after the fall of Capua, 
" your magazines are at Naples !" 

" Let us march, then — to Naples lead us !" was the 
reply, and to the capital the fugitives of INIack's army 
were pursued. A dreadful slaughter was made among 
the Lazzaroni, for a fresh struggle ensued at Naples, and 
every house from which the troops were fired on was 
burned to the ground, and its inmates bayoneted. 

Macdonald had distinguished himself in every engage- 
ment with the unfortunate Mack ; but now a series of 
disputes ensued between him and Championnet, who had 
many troubles to contend with. Irritated by the devas- 
tations committed by the Sieur Faitpoult, Cominissarv of 
the Directory, the general commanding ordered him to 
quit Naples, with his horde of plunderers, within twenty- 
four houi-s. Faitpoult, instead of obeying, raised the 
standard of mutiny against Championnet, but was forced 
to retire. 

The coarse reproaches of the Deputy St. JiLst still 



5?0 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

rankled in the memory of Macdonald, who left nothinf^ 
undone to gain the confidence of the Directory, and pti • 
suade the members of it that he respected their authority, 
while it is but too probable that he despised them in his 
heart. The Sieur Faitpoult had friends in the Directory; 
thus the firmness of Championnet in expelling him from 
Naples was styled mutiny to the Republic, and he was 
ordered to quit the peninsula, and resign his command to 
General Macdonald. Poor Championnet was placed under 
arrest; and, relinquishing his baton to his more fortunate* 
second in command, had to appear before a court-martial 
at Turin. 

With confidence Macdonald accepted this new position, 
which was one of great difficulty ; for the revolted state 
of Naples, and, above all, the turbulence and ferocity of 
the Lazzaroni, were sources of incessant alarm. To travel, 
or pass from town to town, without an armed escort, was 
at that time impossible; fighting, skirmishing, solitary 
4issassinations, and wholesale massacres, were of daily occur- 
rence, particularly in the province of Otranto, where the 
embers of revolt were still fanned by the presence of the 
brave old Cardinal Ruffo, who appeared at the head of his 
followers, clad in full pontificals, wearing his scarlet hat, 
and carrying his pastoral stafi" surmounted by a cross ; and 
thus attired, in a sacred costume so well calculated to rouse 
the enthusiasm of Italians to frenzy, he led them to battle. 
Thus he gave them his benediction before it, and thus ho 
said mass for the souls of those dead braves who died for 
" Ferdinand and the Holy Faith ;" thus attired, at many 
a siege, he sprinkled the battering guns, like his drums 
and banners, with holy water, mingling, as it were, the 
smoke of the censer with the smoke of battle. Thougli 
the fiery spirit thus roused was restless and abroad, Mac* 
donald ultimately forced the whole kingdom to submit, 
and completely mastered the capital, which he governed 
witli firmness and moderation. 

His order of the day, issued on the 4th March, 1799, 
amply details the many dangers which surrounded him, 
and the wise measures he took to guard against them. He 
threatened to make the clergy responsible for the violeuuu 



MARSHAL MACDONALD. 321 

of the populace ; but concluded by declaring liis reverence 
for, and attachment to, religion, and his determination to 
protect all pastors and magistrates wlio conformed to the 
laws of the new republic. Five days after this, beiug in- 
formed that King Ferdinand had an intention of landing 
again, he published a proclamation, in which he somewhat 
oddly invited the people of Naples to rise against their 
native pricce, and unite with France. Acting in concert 
with the Commissioner Abrial, he lowered the taxes levied 
on the people; and, filled by a just admiration for the 
memory of Tasso, he saved from destruction the poet's 
native town, Sorrento, on the southern side of the Gulf of 
Naples, where an insurrection had taken place. After this, 
the provisional government made him a rash and pompous 
offer of forty thousand auxiliaries. 

In April, he generously released and sent to Captain 
Trowbridge, a British officer aud eleven seamen, who had 
been cast ashore at Castellamare, duriug a tempest. He 
had treated them with every kindness as his country- 
men. They were the crew of a prize, the Cliampionnet, 
privateer. 

The entire command of the army in Italy was now be- 
stowed upon General Sherer; and when that officer was 
defeated between the Lake of Garda and the Adige, on 
the 26th of March, he sent a despatch to Macdonald, de- 
siring him to form a junction with his troops in northern 
Italy by forced marches. On hearing of the battle near 
the Adige, the Neapolitans again rose in arms ; and the 
massacres of the French by wandering bands were again 
of daily occurrence; but, in spite of every natural and 
human obstacle, Macdonald effected the junction accord- 
ing to his orders. As his retreat from Naples would have 
been dangerous without an attempt to overawe the armed 
masses who hovered on the mountains, he attacked and 
took Lacava, Castella, and the gloomy little town of Avel- 
lino, before his departure. On the 26th May, he was in 
Tuscany, and united with the divisions detached by General 
Moreau. There were not wanting those who blamed him 
for losing time in combining his force with that of Moreau; 
but those who did so were ignorant of the nature of Iho 

y 



522 THE CAVALIEBS OF FORTUNE. 

-country he had to traverse with his trains of artillery and 
baggage. 

" General Macdonald has been here since the 5th 
instant," says a French letter from Florence. " We deem 
iiim the saviour of the French in Italy, and our confidence 
in him will not be disappointed. His army, which has 
advanced by forced marches, assembled here yesterday. It 
is full of ardour, and its zeal, which a few reverses have 
>only fired anew, is a happy presage in our favour." 

On the 13th June, he attacked Modena, and in less than 
-two hours dispersed the Austrian division of Count Hohen- 
2ollern, which was in position upon the glacis of the place ; 
and two thousand prisoners were taken by his French 
grenadiers. In an account of this afiair, General Sarrazen, 
who led these grenadiers, mentions that when Macdonald 
'was pressing on with the infantry of the line against the 
cavalry, he said to him; — 

" Macdonald, I shall remain with my grenadiers, and 
ihink you had better do the same." 

" Do you not see, M. Sarrazen, that I have them all, as 
if caught in a mousetrap," replied the commander, joyously ; 
and, when within a hundred paces of the Austrian horse, 
he required them to surrender. 

"We yield," replied an officer, sheathing his sabre 
^and riding confidently forward. Macdonald continued to 
;approach until within pistol-shot of their line, when the 
treacherous German suddenly exclaimed, while unsheath- 
ing his weapon, — 

" Draw sabres — charge !" 

He threw himself at full speed upon Macdonald, who 
•was far from anticipating a movement so sudden, and, 
after receiving three sword-cuts on the head, was thrown 
from his horse covered^with blood. This was all done in 
a moment, and the German officer mingled with his 
squadron, which instantly took to flight. They were, ]iow- 
ever, overtaken and captured, and their leader, a youth of 
-eighteen, was slain. Macdonald was at first supposed to 
be dead, for he lay stunned on the ground, having three 
deep wounds, with a contusion by the fall from his horse; 
yet he was in his saddle, and at the head of his column 



MARSHAL MACDONALD. 323 

on tlie 17tli, when the advanced guard of the Kussians, 
under Suwarrow, forced the French into position on the 
right bank of the Trebia, so celebrated for the victory of 
Hannibal over the forces of the consul Sempronius; and 
there, on this classic ground, ensued one of the bloodiest 
battles of the Italian campaign. 

Macdonald had advanced by Reggio and Modena, to 
effect a junction vvdth the army of Moreau, or to relieve 
Mantua ; but being without pontoons, he found the passage 
of the Po impossible, as that river was swollen by recent 
rains, and, moreover, was defended by General Kray, 
wdth 10,000 irregulars, and twice that number of armed 
peasantry. On the 17th, his advanced guard was at Pla- 
centia; next day, he attacked and repulsed General Ott, 
near San Giovanni ; but the advance of the Russians, under 
Suwarrow, changed the fortune of the field. 

General Sarrazen states Macdonald's force at 40,000 
strong; M. de Segur gives it at 28,000. On the bank of 
that stream, the most rapid and impetuous in Cisalpine 
Gaul, the contest was fierce and desperate; but the daring 
attempts of Macdonald to cross, at the head of his troops, 
were repulsed. 

"On the 18th and 19th," says a journal of the time, 
" the battles were very murderous. The French formed 
a square four men deep and fought desperately, till a 
column of Russians passed the river up to their necks in 
the water, broke through with the bayonet, and made a 
dreadful carnage among them. On the whole, the French 
are supposed to have lost, since the 11th instant, 15,000 
men in killed, wounded, and prisoners. Macdonald himself 
has received two sabre -wounds jfrom a Hungarian hussar. 
Among the prisoners taken are 4 generals and 700 officers. 
Our loss consists of 4000 men killed and wounded, and 
400 prisoners ; but the latter were rescued in the pursuit, 
and 40 waggons with French wounded were taken at the 
same time." 

The fury of the Russian advance threw Macdonald's 
centre into confusion. Sabre in hand, he strove to enforce 
order under a heavy fire of cannon and musketry; but was 
swept away with the panic-stricken mass of the 5th regi- 



S24 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

nient of liglit infantry, among whom lie became entangled, 
and who were flying in disorder, abandoning their muskets, 
knapsacks, canteens, and blankets in their eagerness to 
escape. By them he was hurried into the current of the 
Trebia, and narrowly escaped being drowned. This con- 
fusion was caused by a brilliant charge of 500 Cossacks, 
who rushed with their lances in the rest through a cloud 
of dust. A terrified French chasseur exclaimed, — 

"The whole Russian cavalry are upon us — fly!" 

Then it was that the 5th gave way, and the centre was 
broken, but still the flanks fought des2)erately ; and had 
the division of Moreau been in the field, it must have been 
won for France; but on that day he was attempting to 
raise the siege of Tortosa. Three standards were laid at 
the feet of Su war row. 

At Trebia, according to M. de Segur, who once served 
on Macdonald's stafi", " during three days of a battle, the 
most desperate in our annals, twenty-eight thousand French 
withstood fifty thousand Russians, held the fortunes of 
the day in balance, and gave vainly to Moreau the time 
to strike a blow for France. The victory remained finally 
with Suwarrow ; but, in his astonishment, the rude Mus- 
covite exclaimed, — 

" One more such success, and we shall lose the Penin- 
sula !" 

Meanwhile, Macdonald had been deceived in hia 
expectations; his army was exhausted; he was severely 
wounded, and when it was necessary that he should retire, 
a torrent of foes behind opposed his retreat. Beyond 
this torrent, other foes awaited him. The courage of his 
soldiers failed; hut he, calm and serene, encouraged them, 
saying, — 

*' Be of good cheer, for nothing is impossible to the 
brave !" 

With the remains of his shattered army he retired 
towards Tuscany and Bologna ; and at Piacenza a great 
quantity of his ammunition and baggage fell into the 
hands of his pursuers. In the Directoiy there were 
men who now reproached him with having wished to gain 
9k battle alone, or at least without the participation of 



MAKSnAIi MACDONAT.D. 325 

Moreau; but it was by the express command of that 
general, on whose part he fully expected assistance, that 
he attempted to force the passage of the Trebia, and break 
the left wing of the Austro-Russian army. Kotwith- 
fitanding the desperation of his circumstances, he was not 
without hopes of making another stand; but, on being 
deserted by General Lahoz, a Cisalj)iner, and his corps, 
which united with twenty thousand insurgents to gall his 
flight, Macdonald relinquished all idea of again giving 
battle, and continued his retreat towards the mountains of 
Genoa, followed by the troops of Generals Ott, Klenau, 
Lahoz, and Count Hohenzollern, and by hordes of brigands 
and guerillas, who murdered his men on all hands, and 
massacred them in the mountain passes. 

With a flag of truce, he sent an ofiicer to the Austrian 
general Melas, praying that he would treat with mercy 
the wounded Frenchmen whom he had been compelled to 
abandon in Piacenza. 

*•' The request is needless," replied Melas ; " Austrian 
soldiers know too well the duties of humanity to require 
such advice." 

Wounds and fatigue had so severely impaired Mac 
donald's health, that he was fain to ask Suwarrow's 
permission to visit the baths of Pisa. This, the Russian 
with chivalry and courtesy granted at once; but, instead 
of visiting the celebrated Bagni di Pisa, the general 
returned to France, relinquishing the command of his 
column, after uniting it to the army of Moreau ; and im- 
mediately on his arrival in Paris he was entrusted by 
Napoleon with the command at Yersailles. 

By this time the French had abandoned the whole 
coast of the Adriatic, and lost their conquests in Naples, 
where nothing remained of them but the graves of the 
slain. 

During th« past hostilities the domestic relations of 
the Republic had not improved in character or in spirit; 
and the feeble condition of the Directory aff'orded au 
admirable path by which the ambition of Napoleon might 
lead to a newer and firmer form of government. Returning 
hastily from his unsuccessful Egyptian campaign, he had 



326 THE CAVALIERS OF FOllTUNE. 

reached Paris ; and entering at once into the schemes of 
Talleyrand and his friend Sieyes, a military conspiracy was 
formed to remodel the Eepublic as a Consulate, of which 
he should be the head. Whatever may have been the 
motives, or secret ambitions, which led the military chiefH 
to revolutionize France again, it cannot be denied that 
she benefited thereby; and the energy with which the 
essay was made, and the success it had, were a sure 
guarantee for the decision of future affairs. 

Macdonald was in command at Versailles while these 
plans were maturing, and wlien Napoleon arrived at the 
Palace of St. Cloud. Though not actually in the con- : 
spiracy, he was in the secret, and knew that opposition to j 
Napoleon would neither be for the interests of France, \ 
the army, or himself; thus he took the lead in the matter, ^ 
and by suddenly closing or dispersing the political club , 
at Versailles, made the inhabitants aware that he, at least, ■ 
deemed the time had come, " when a just administration 
should obliterate the horrors of the last few years, and 
the fatal vacillation of the weak Directory." 

On the 18th Brumaire, the attempt was to be made; 
and Napoleon, accompanied by Macdonald, De Bournou- 
ville, and Moreau, inspected in the gardens of the Tuileries 
ten thousand chosen soldiers on whose faith they could 
depend, and there Augereau, the future Duke of Casti- 
glione, joined them. 

" M. le General," said he, embracing Napoleon, " you 
have not called for me, but I have come to join you." 

" You are welcome," replied Napoleon. 

It was a perilous task they had undertaken, to over- 1 
throw the political incubus that had pressed so long upon 
France; and while the startled Directory, who had already 
discovered the designs of those without, were debating 
about their own safety, and while Moulins urged that a 
battalion should be sent to seize Napoleon, the latter ]. 
suddenly appeared, sword in hand, at the door of the hall, ' 
and entered with his grenadiers, three deep, at a time 
when the projected Consulate was being discussed by 
some of the Directory with very little chance of success. 
Ho decided the matter at once, by ordering his drummen 



MARSHAL MACDONALD. 32T 

to beat a pas de charge, and by dismissing tbe judges with 
a promptitude worthy of Cromwell, and with a courage 
which evinced that, on his part, nothing would be wanting 
to retain the power he had won. 

When an army was formed for the re-conquest ot 
Naples, in 1800, Napoleon offered Macdonald the com- 
mand of the corps de reserve. He did this to testify hi»^ 
pleasure for his adherence to the revolution of the 18th 
Brum aire j but the general, who felt piqued by the offer 
of a command so subordinate, in a country where he had 
before led an army, urged illness and wounds as a reason 
for remaining in France, The penetration of Napoleoft 
was too keen for the true sentiments of Macdonald to* 
escape him ; thus on the 24th of August, in the same year,,- 
he was appointed to command the army of Switzerland,, 
which was destined to penetrate into the Tyrol, to second 
the operations of the army of Italy and favour the columns^ 
of Moreau (who was then warring in Germany) by com- 
pelling the Austrians to employ at least thirty thousand 
of their best men among the Tyrolean mountains — the- 
bulwark of the German empire. 

Macdonald marched from Beam in Septembei', with 
forty thousand men,* towards Helvetia, accompanied 
by General Matthew Dumas, chief of the staff, a soldier 
who used his pen better than his sword. His first desire- 
was that a corps of Helvetians should be formed to co- 
operate with the French against the Austrians; but this 
request the Swiss government declined; and he soon found 
his campaign to consist of a series of arduous marchess 
among the mountains, where, as the season advanced and 
the winter drew on, his soldiers endured every misery that, 
toil, hunger, and cold could inflict. 

In the passage of the Alps, when one of his columns, 
composed of the 80th Begiment, with some cavalry,, 
artillery, sappers, and guides, under Laboissiere, attempted 
to cross the Splugen, in the country of the Grisons, a 
dreadful avalanche suddenly came thundering down from 
the mountains to bar their march, and swept forty-two 

* General Sarrazen B&ys ^teen thousand ^?^ 



328 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

of the lOth Dragoons, with tlieir horses, over a precipice. 
His other columns met with equal difl&culties. A letter 
in the Paris papers, dated " Head-quarters, Chicavenna, 
7th December, 1800," relates: — 

" It was necessary to traverse the Splugen and Mount 
Curduiet. These mountains, even in July, present all the 
horrors of winter; judge what they are in December! 
Threatening and inaccessible rocks, seas of snow on all 
sides, tori-ents of avalanches falling with a noise equally 
terrible. Since our first march, two hundred men, with 
tlieir horses, have been swallowed up. After unheard-of 
labour, we succeeded in disengaging all of them except 
three. There was not the least trace of a road ; but by 
labour and constancy we opened a narrow path, bordered 
by precipices which the eye could not fathom nor the 
foot always avoid." 

Two-thirds of the pass, which leads towards Como had 
been traversed, the troops in front, with muskets slung, 
digging a path for their comrades in the rear, till the 
column, exhausted by cold and fatigue, began to retire with- 
out orders, though the dangers behind — snow, hunger, 
and avalanches — were the same as those in front. Mac- 
donald galloped towards his sinking soldiers, and his pre- 
sence had an immediate effect on them. They halted; he 
entreated and threatened; but they listened in sullen 
silence. 

Then he dismounted, seized a shovel, and proceeded to 
dig the snow, exclaiming — * 

" My comrades, I would rather perish in the abyss than 
stoop to turn my steps on perils such as these !" 

" Vive M. le General !" cried the soldiers of the 80th. 
Confidence was inspired anew ; again the muskets were 
slung, the shovels resumed, and after three days of labour, 
danger, and toil, the passage was achieved, and the troops 
of Macdonald debouched from that terrible gorge, where 
the frozen precipices seemed to hang from heaven, and 
where whirlwinds of hail, tempests of snow, with death 
in its most frightful form, had been encountered. 

The resistance he experienced from the Austrian troops 
was trivial; and on the 7th of January, 1801, he made 



MARSHAL :\rACDONALD. 3^29 

filmself master of the circle and city of Trent ; but the 
armistice concluded at Treviso on the 16th of the same 
month put an end to the war. After this he remained for 
some time at Isola, suffering from an illness caused by the 
fatigues he had undergone at Splugen, and Delmas com- 
manded in the interim. 

At the close of the campaign he returned to Paris, 
where his opposition to some of the arbitrary measures of 
the First Consul made that haughty personage resolve on 
politely getting rid of a troublesome mentor, by sending 
liim on a distant mission. He was accordingly dispatched 
to Denmark, as Minister Plenipotentiary from France to 
the Court of Christian YII. There he resided for three 
years, and there he encountered so many disagreeables, as 
his presence was unwelcome in Copenhagen, that he fre- 
quently solicited his recal; but Napoleon was jealous of 
Moreau, who was Macdonald's chief friend : thus he was 
only recalled when the First Consul was about to exchange 
the consular staff for an imperial sceptre. 

It was about this time that the famous conspiracy of 
General Pichegreu and Georges Cadoudal, and their cor- 
respondence with the Prince of Conde, were discovered. 
In that correspondence Moreau was compromised to a 
dangerous extent; thus his friend Macdonaldwas received 
with greater coldness at the Tuileries. 

The high indignation which he had the temerit}^ to 
express after the mock trial and banishment of his brother 
soklier Moreau, who fled to America, completed the dis- 
pleasure of the new Emperor, who withdrew all counte- 
nance from Macdonald, and, notwithstanding his past 
services, bravery, and endurance, his name was omitted 
from the list of marshals of the Empire who were then 
created. 

He retired to the country, inspired by a mortification 
which he could not repress; and remained in seclusion, 
unnoticed, during the early part of the new war against 
Spain and Austria, and until 1809 would seem to have 
been forgotten; but he had perliaps the consolation of 
remembering " that he must not fear who thirsts for glory ; 
and although we often find that true merit is eclipsed for 



330 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

a time, we have never known it to be entirely lost ; it 
bursts at last tlirough the clouds which environ it, and 
appears resplendent in its bright and genuine colours." 

These were the words of Fabius Maximus to Emiiius 
when, with Varro, he went to lead the Roman army; and 
thus the " true merit," the coolness and intrepidity of 
Macdonald, were destined to shine again, for he was 
remembered by Napoleon when that monarch became 
entangled with the Italian and Peninsula wars — when 
the great armies of Austria pressed him on one hand and 
the distant hordes of Russia were gathering on the other; 
then, but not till then, did he seem to remember the 
brave soldier whom petty quarrels and court intrigues 
had compelled him to overlook. This was in that year 
when the perfidy of Napoleon to the royal family of Spain 
and to the whole Spanish nation excited such indignation, 
not only at the Court of Vienna, but throughout the 
whole of Germany and Europe generally. 

Macdonald was now offered the command of a division 
in that corps of the army of Italy led by Prince Eugene 
Beauharnois, who was then evincing his usual intrepidity, 
but was experiencing severe checks from the Archduke 
John of Austria. This offer he at once accepted, for he 
had grown weary alike of peace and of retirement. He 
joined Prince Eugene; and from that period was deemed 
his mentor rather than his second in command. 

At the head of the right wing he crossed the Isola on 
the 14th and 15th of April, 1809, and drove the Austrians 
from their strong positions at Goritz, capturing eleven of 
their guns and much munition of war. 

These successes led to those at Raab and at Laybach, 
both of which were the result of Macdonald's combinations 
and manoeuvres; and pushing on vigorously, without 
leisure or delay, with his division, he joined the grand 
army of the Emperor before the gates of Vienna. 

On the 5th and 6th of July he was at the famous battle 
of Wagram, where he led two divisions of infantry, some 
of which were battalions of the Garde Imperiale. With 
ihese he advanced under a fire, when two hundred pieces 



MARSHAL MACDONALD. 331 

of cannon were engaged on both sides, and when the roar 
of the conflict was the gvetitest ever heard even by the 
oldest veteran of these warlike armies. Three-fourths of 
his column perished under the storm of shot by which it 
was assailed as he advanced to break the Austrian centre, 
the task assigned to him by the Emperor. 

The fury with which his troops came on was irresistible. 
He drove back the brigades of the archduke with immense 
loss, and a total rout of the Austrians ensued, thus termi- 
nating a two days' conflict which will ever be remembered 
in the annals of carnage — for few prisoners were taken 
on either side, which proved the resolution of both — to 
conquer or die ! 

Thirty-six thousand, seven hundred and seventy-three 
ofHcers and soldiers of both armies lay killed or wounded 
on the field and round the walls of Vienna; while, as 
related in the memoir of Count O'Reilly, corpses in 
every variety of uniform, gashed and bloody, floated in 
hundreds dov/n the dark waters of the Danube, or were 
daily thrown upon its shores to feed the v/olves or to 
fester and decay. Such was the field of Wagram, and 
it was the culminating point in the fortunes of Stephen 
Macdonald. 

Napoleon, though little disposed to view him with 
favour, when the field was won, sprang from his horse, and 
embraced him with ardour, exclaiming, — 

" Now, Macdonald, we are together for life and death 1" 

He complimented him before his staff, extolled him in 
the bulletin, and on the field of battle made him at last a 
Marshal of the Empire. 

Of all the French marshals he was the only one who 
thus received a baton in the field, and soon after he was 
created Duke of Tarentum, from a town of that name in 
Naples. 

" Among all the marshals of France," says the editor of 
Bourienne's Memoirs, "there is not one so pure from 
every stain on the soldier's character — so daringly honest 
with Napoleon in his prosperity — so lastingly true to hiin 
in his adversity, as this, his only Scottish officer." 



332 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

Napoleon thus bore honourable testimony to the value 
^f his service at Wagram, the glory of which another 
marshal sought to appropriate to himself. 

" As his majesty commands his army in person," says 
Napoleon, in a private order, dated Camp of Schcenbrunu, 
9th of July, 1809, " to him belongs the exclusive right of 
assigning the degree of glory which each merits. His 
majesty owes the success of his arms to the French troops, 
and not to strangei-s. Prince Ponte Corvo's order of tlie 
day, tending to give false pretensions to troops, at best not 
above mediocrity, is contrary to truth, to discipline, and 
to national honour. The corps of the Prince of Ponte 
Corvo did not remain immovable as iron. It was the 
first to retreat. His majesty was obliged to cover it by 
the corps of the Guard and the division commanded by 
Marshal Macdonald, by the division of heavy cavalry 
commanded by General Nautsonby, and by a part of the 
cavalry of the Guard. To Marslml Macdonald belongs 
the j^raise lohich the Prince of Fonte Corvo arrogates to 
himself. His majesty desires that this testimony of his 
displeasure may serve as an example to every marshal 
not to attribute to himself the glory which belongs to 
others."* 

After Wagram he commanded in the duchy of Gratz, 
and maintained in his army a discipline so severe in 
repressing plunder and outrage, that on his departure at 
the peace with Austria, before his division began its 
homeward march for France, the States prayed him to 
accept an offering of two hundred thousand francs, but he 
resolutely declined them. 

" Messieurs," said he, " I am a soldier — I have done but 
my duty." 

Then the deputies offered him a jewel-box of great value, 
as a bridal gift for one of his daughters; and to the bearers 
he made the following reply : — 

" Gentlemen, if you believe that you owe me anything, 
you shall have the means of repaying me amply, by the 
care you will take of three hundred poor invalid soldiers, 
whom I shall leave in your city." 
* Eourienne. 



MARSHAL MACDONALD. SSS- 

Napoleon was now in tlie zenith of Ins power; his mar- 
riage with Maria Louisa — an espousal more politic than 
honourable — had been celebrated at the close of the year 
of Wagram; and in the year following, Holland, the- 
Va]ais, and the Hanse Towns were annexed to France ; 
territories which, with those of Rome, gave to the new 
empire an augmentation of nearly 5,000,000 of sub- 
jects. 

The war was now raging in the Peninsula, aud there 
the feeble measures of Augereau in Catalonia made Na- 
poleon resolve to supersede him. The Duke of Tarentum 
was named his successor, and, as such, he soon restored 
order among the Catalans. In their mountainous pro^ 
vince, more than in any other part of Spain, military 
talent and energy were required ; as the entire population 
— a brave, resolute, and hardy race — v.^ere in arms against 
the invaders. Augereau's losses in the desultory warfare 
maintained by the Guerillas were so severe that they more 
than counterbalanced his success in the sieges he under- 
took ; and these losses were so indicative of mismanage- 
ment that they ensured his recal to France. He marched 
for the frontier laden with the plunder of Barcelona, and 
of all the officers who formed its escort, General Chabran 
was the only one — as the Catalan journals remarked — who 
did oiot pillage the house in which he had been quartered; 
but returned to the Patron de Caza the silver spoons he 
had used at table. 

At this time rapine was the order of the day in the 
French army; a hammer and a small saw invariably 
formed a portion of a soldier's accoutrements, that he 
might have tools at hand to break open every lock-fast 
place, when the work of pillage began. 

In Catalonia, Macdonald found himself at the head of 
17,000 men; in the adjoining i^rovinco of Aragon, Suchet 
led 16,000; and the Spanish corps of O'Donnel were the 
only regular troojDS opposed to them both. 

On Suchet laying siege to Tortosa, a fortified city 
on the left bank of the Ebro, Macdonald marched with 
12,000 men to secure the entrance of a convoy of pro- 
visions into Barcelona; and this he achieved in "^^^umph, 



334 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

defeating a vigorous attempt of the Spaniards to inte? 
cept it. 

O'Donnel, general of the Spaniards, now directed h:^ 
main efforts to relieve Tortosa, where the Conde de Alacha 
Miguel Lili, with 7800 brave fellows, who had survived or 
escaped from the battle of Tudela, made a stout resistance. 
O'Donnel left nothing undone to impede the operations of 
the besiegers and raise the blockade; till Macdonald, to 
distract his attention and favour the operations of Suchet, 
marched upon Tarragona, a seaport near the mouth of the 
Francoli. It is picturesquely situated upon a hill, and is 
surrounded by old Moorish walls, having turrets at inter- 
vals. As it is a place of importance, the Spaniards were 
anxious to preserve it, and pressed Macdonald so severely 
that he was forced to take up a position in sight of the 
town, in a plain so near the sea that one of his flanks was 
exposed to a cannonade from a British frigate. Finding 
this position untenable, after a sharp encounter, and 
reaping no other advantage from his march than the 
plunder of Reus, a wealthy little manufacturing town, he 
retreated across the plains of Tarragona, harassed on both 
flanks by the troops of Sarsfield and Ibarrola, who slew 
300 of his soldiers, captured 130, and retook most of the 
pillage found in Reus and elsewhere. 

As a central point, from whence he could cover Suchet's 
operations against Tortosa, and command a space of 
country capable of supplying the troops with food and 
forage, Macdonald chose a strong position near Cervera, 
in sight of the Mediterranean. Finding him secure here, 
O'Donnel, instead of attacking him, turned the attention 
of his own troops against the French elsewhere, and cut 
off several of their small garrisons, until he received a 
wound which disabled him. 

On the 13th December, Macdonald received a welcome 
reinforcement of ten thousand men; but, notwithstanding, 
Eroles, Sarsfield, and Campoverde, at the head of the Spanish 
regiments of the line and Guerillas of Catalonia, fought him 
successfully in almost every instance. Yet his movements 
BO completely covered the siege of Tortosa that, after five 
months' delay, Suchet was able to break ground before it^ 



MARSHAL MACDONALD. 335 

«nd the Condo Lili surrendered at discretion ; for which 
sentence of death was pronounced against him by the 
Spanish authorities; and with great solemnity, in the 
market-place of Tarragona, the head was struck from his 
£ffijgy by the public executioner. 

in 1811, Macdonald possessed himself of Figueras, a 
small Catalonian town situated in a fertile plain, not far 
from the frontier of France. On an eminence it has a mag- 
nificent castle, with bomb-proof towers and undermined 
approaches. This importa,nt strength had been taken by 
the French three years before ; but on the night of the 
10th April, 1811, some Catalonians who had been forced 
into the ranks of a French regiment, finding themselves, 
by a lucky coincidence, all on guard together, resolved to 
have their revenge. They opened a sally-port to their 
countrymen, who entering the castle sword in hand, made 
the garrison, to the number of four thousand men, pri- 
soners, without a shot being exchanged. On the 19 th of 
the following August, Macdonald, after meeting with a 
determined resistance from these Catalonians, retook the 
castle of Figueras, by capitulation, and garrisoned it again 
for Joseph Bonaparte. 

After this recapture, Catalonia seemed to be subjugated 
to the yoke of France; yet, for some reason unknown, 
Macdonald was withdrawn from the command of the army 
there, and it was bestowed upon General Decaen. It is 
supposed that Napoleon, who disliked that any one should 
assume the part of monitor or judge of his soldiers, was 
piqued at the tenor of an obscure passage in Macdonald's 
report, in which he detailed to Marshal Berthier the re- 
capture of Figueras. It ran thus : — 

" I please myself in rendering justice \>o the army, in the 
hope that the Emperor will view with an eye of favour 
these brave fellows, entreating your excellency to cause it 
to he remarked to his Majesty that his army in Catalonia 
is a stranger to the event which has re-united it in this 
place." 

" How happens it," said General Sarrazen, " that Mac- 
donald, who does not want for good sense, should have 
permitted himself to use such awkward observations ?'* 



336 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

In the disastrous invasion of Russia he had commancJ 
of the 10th Corps, of which the Prussians formed a part. 
The details of that terrible \vinter campaign are too well 
known to all the world to require recapitulation in these 
mem oil's. 

The Emperor led his army to Smolensko, on the great 
road to Moscow, and crossed the Niemann on the 27th of 
June. 

Macdonald crossed the same river, on the same day, at 
Tilsit, by a bridge of boats, and at the head of his French 
and Prussians (the Corps d'Yorck) seized Dunabourg, 
while Kowno, in Lithuania, fell without a struggle, and the 
great army of the Empire marched through it in splendid 
order, with all its bands playing and colours flying. How 
different was the aspect of the few surviving fugitives 
of that army when they repassed Kowno in December 
following ! 

With orders to occupy the line of Riga, and if it was 
captured, to threaten St. Petersburg, Macdonald marched 
towards the capital of Livonia, which was occupied by a 
numerous garrison, whose ^^efensive measures were ably 
seconded by a British naval force. Napoleon conceived 
that if the main body of the Russians fell back on St. 
Petersburg, he would, when following them, be able to 
effect a junction with the 10th Corps under Macdonald, 
after which they could push on together ; but though the 
latter burned the suburbs of Riga, his operations against 
the place were long retarded by the bravery of the besieged. 
Though not regularly fortified, the town has considerable 
means of defence, being encircled by an earthen rampart, 
and having a citadel, while a fortress guards the entrance 
of the Duna or Dwina. 

The project of Napoleon became a failure, when the 
route pursued by the retreating Russians proved different 
from the one he anticipated. Thus he was obliged to 
advance after them to Moscow, while Macdonald remained 
for a time before Riga, on which he could make no im- 
pression, though he fought under its walls a series of 
bloody conflicts, in futile assaidts and repulsing desperate 
sorties. Suspicion of the faith of his Prussian regiments 



MARSHAL MACDONALD. 337 

was not his least source of anxiety. When St. Cjr was 
alarmed that his flanks might be turned by the Russians 
from Finland, he wrote an urgent letter to Macdonald 
I'equesting him to oppose the march of those troops who 
were led by Wittgenstien and Steinheil, and whose line 
of march lay in front of the position before Riga ; adding 
that if he (Macdonald) objected to detach any part of his 
forces from the blockade, to come and assume command of 
St. Cyr's division in person, and meet this army from 
Finland. " But Macdonald," adds Count Segur, " did not 
conceive himself justified in making so important a move- 
ment without express orders. He distrusted Yorck, the 
Prussian general, whom he suspected of intending to 
deliver up to the Russians his park of siege artillery. 
He replied, that to defend it was his first and most in- 
dispensable duty, and he declined to quit his station." 

Macdonald's suspicions soon proved correct ; for on the 
13tli December, 1812, when in presence of the enemy, 
he was abandoned by the whole of the Prussians under 
General Yorck ; and was thus compelled to retire, though 
resisting with indomitable energy the attack of the Rus- 
sians, Avho followed him closefy, when sword in hand he 
sought to hew a passage to the rear. By this time all was 
lost elsewhere. 

He survived the perils of that frightful campaign, in 
which out of 300,000 soldiers, who, in June, passed the 
Niemann in all the pomp of war and pride of former 
victories, scarcely 50,000 escaped out of Russia ; and of 
these the greater nr.mber had suflered so dreadfully from 
wounds, hunger and frost, as to be quite unfit for future 
service. 

With 1131 pieces of cannon, tliere were taken by the 
Russians 41 generals, 1298 officers. 167,410 sergeants 
and rank and file. The 7'est were accounted for by the 
frost and snow, the Cossack lances, the bullet and the 
sabre, rendering the paths across the whitened wastes of 
Russia impassable with the bodies of the dying and the 
dead. Never in all the annals of war were greater sufiTer- 
ings detailed than those endured by the miserable French 
on their retreat from flaminj? Moscow. 



838 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

In 1813, Macdonald commanded a corps in Saxony, 
where, on the 29th April, he had the satisfaction of rout- 
ing at Mercebourg the division of General Yorck, composed 
of the same Prussians who had abandoned him at Eiga 
during the previous year ; and at Lutzen, where, on the 
2nd May, the combined forces of Russia and Prussia met 
the French in battle, led by the Emperor in person, he 
attacked the Prussian reserve, and after a long and severe 
engagement cut it to pieces. 

" IsTow," said he, " I have fully avenged the desertion of j 
General Yorck." 

After this Napoleon retired and established his head- 
quarters at Dresden, while Leipzig and Breslau were also 
occupied by his troops. On being reinforced by the 
Saxons, whose king he held as a species of hostage for his 
people, he resolved on attacking the northern allies near 
Bautzen ; and Macdonald hastened with his division across 
the Spree, to share in the battle which ensued in June. 
The French triumphed, and their foes had to retreat, but 
in fine order, into Silesia. Macdonald was despatched by 
the Emperor in pursuit ; but was compelled to fall back, 
fcs the roads by which he must have marched were almost 
Inundated. 

Nowhere did he attain more distinction than during 
the horrors of the three days of Leipzig. 

This Saxon city, which is situated in a fertile plain, has 
suffered in many wars, but by none so much as the cam- 
paign of 1813. In that year Napoleon made it the 
general hospital for the sick and wounded of his army; 
thus its beautiful environs soon became the sad scene of 
many important events. In several battles and skirmishes 
the allies had defeated the French during the months of 
August and September ; but Napoleon, who, with his cha- 
racteristic obstinacy, adhered to Dresden as the centre of his 
position, found himself out-manoeuvred, when eighty miles 
in his rear he heard of Marshal Blucher passing the Black 
Elster, and that Bernadotte, a prince of his own making, 
.%ut now in arms against him, had arrived, after a long 
And circuitous march, near the suburbs of Leipzig, while 
Schwartzenbourg drew near that city from the south-east. 



MARSHAL MACDONALD. 329 

This was in the month of October. 

The French numbered 160,000 bayonets and sabres; 
the allies 240,000. The outposts were soon engaged on 
the 16th j the following day was spent in skit-mishes and 
manoeuvres till the three allied armies formed a junction, 
and the stern conflict of the 18th began with all its 
terrors over an extent of line that covered seven miles. 
A little village on the French right, where Napoleon had 
posted himself, was lost and retaken again and again at 
the bayonet's point under a storm of round and grape shot. 
Noon arrived, but the battle was still undecided, when all 
breathless with speed, an officer, with his uniform torn 
and bloody, rushed towards the Emperor. 

*' Sire," he exclaimed, " the left wing has given way ; 
the Saxon cavalry and artillery have gone over to the 
enemy !" 

*' Silence !" replied Napoleon, sternly; "silence !" 

The intelligence was kept secret from the right and 
centre, and still the strife went on. 

By three p.m. came the still more alarming tidings that 
the Saxon infantry had deserted en masse to the allies. 
This also was kept a secret from the French troops, though 
the Imperial Guard was ordered to take their place ; but 
the power thus attained by the allies was no longer to be 
withstood, and a precipitate retreat towards the Khine 
became the first thought of the vanquished Emperor. 

At nightfall he gave the order to fall back, leaving the 
environs of Leipzig strewed with dead and dying ; but his 
order was tardily executed, as all the French fugitives 
with their baggage, cannon, and wounded, on horseback, 
on foot, or in waggons, were compelled to take one road, 
every other being occupied by the cavalry and horse 
artillery of the victors ; consequently, the sufferings and 
slaughter of the French, even after the field was lost, 
became dreadful. Napoleon, before retiring, had ordered 
that the bridge of the White Elster should be under- 
mined, and directed Macdonald and Prince Joseph Po- 
niatowski, with their divisions, to defend a portion of 
the suburbs that lay between the advancing enemy and 
the Borna road ; and to leave nothing undone to maintai» 
z2 



340 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

their post to the last, that the retreat of the army and 
^agg^ge might be fully covered. 

Poiiiatowski was brave as a lion. He was nei)hew of 
Stanislaus Augustus, the last King of Poland, and was 
iinimated alike by the purest patriotism and hatred of the 
Russians j hence he served France against them as the 
oppressors of his house and native country. He had 
:2000 Polish infantry and a few horse with him ; and 
•seeing the desperation of affiiirs, as the waggons of 
wounded, dripping with blood, the heavy artillery with 
their tumbrils, and the masses of fugitive soldiery ex- 
liausted by three days of fighting and excitement, pressed 
in close ranks across the bridge of the Elster, he drew his 
£abre and turning to his countrymen — 

" Gentlemen," said he, " here we must win or lose our 
honour ! — Forward !*' and at the head, of a few Polish 
cuirassiers ke made a rush towards the enemy. At that 
sffioment the bridge of the Elster was blown up, and his 
retreat cut off for ever ! 

Macdonald was similarly circumstanced, as his troops 
liad manned and enfiladed the suburbs, where they were 
firing briskly to keep the foe in check from walls, houses, 
iind hedgerows. 

According to the Moniteur, it was the intention of 
Napoleon to have the bridge blown up only at the last 
moment, and when all his troops had passed the stream. 
General Dussaussoy had remitted this duty to Colonel 
Montfort, who, in tarn, had remitted it to a corporal and 
four sappers. On the first appearance of the enemy upon 
the road, and when the cuirassiers of Poniatowski charged, 
the startled corporal fired the train, and a dark cloud of 
■dust and stones ascending into the air with a mighty roar, 
announced the destruction of the bridge ; while Macdonald 
4ind his whole corps, with eighty pieces of cannon, all their 
eagles, and several hundred carriages laden with powder, 
•baggage, and wounded men, were on the wrong side of the 
river. A shout of astonishment and dismay arose from 
those who had crossed ; and many an anxious eye was 
turned back to Leipzig, where the roar of musketry was yet 
lieard in the rear. 



MARSHAL MACDONALD. 341 

The attention of Napoleon, who had left the city by the 
road which led by the bridge to Lindenau (the direct route 
for France) was arrested by the explosion, and one of his 
aides-de-camp exclaimed, 

"Sire — sire — they have blown up the bridge of the? 
Elster, and Macdonald's corps is yet in Leipzig /" 

" At that time," to quote Bourienne, " Napoleon was 
accused of having given orders for the destruction of the 
bridge, immediately after his own passage, to secure his 
retreat from the active pursuit of the enemy. The Eng- 
lish journals were unanimous on this point, and there 
were few of the inhabitants of Leipzig who doubted the- 
fact." 

If this be true, it was a baseness only equalled by the* 
strangulation of Pichegreu, the torture of Captain Wright 
in the Temple, and the lonely butchery of the haplesa 
Due d'Enghien. 

Finding all lost, and that his retreat was cut off, Mac- 
donald sheathed his sword, and calling on his soldiers to- 
escape as they best could, threw himself into the river, the 
waters of which were darkening as the night drew on. 
He swam across, and reached the other side in safety.. 
Poor Poniatowski, though bleeding and severely wounded^ 
imitated his example j but he was pierced by a bullet, 
from one of the enemy's skirmishers, who had now lined 
the steep bank of the Elster, and opened a murderous fire- 
upon the mass of unfortunate fugitives, the wreck oH 
Macdonald's corps, who were struggling in the stream,. 
In the dark, the unfortunate prince was swept away witli 
his charger and drowned. Five days after, his corpse was 
found by a fisherman, and interred on the bank of the 
stream. A granite sarcophagus, surrounded by acacia* 
and weeping- willows, marks the place where he lies. 

Colonel Montfort, the corporal, and the four sappers^ 
were delivered over to a court-martial. 

S*uch was the closing episode of that terrible day at 
Leipzig, the anniversary of the more glorious events of 
Ulm and of Jena — a day that cost France nearly forty 
thousand men. 

Napoleon continued his retreat to Mayence, with aa 



342 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

army exhausted by toil, crushed by defeat, and savage in 
spirit, but lacking the stamina to make one more vigorous 
stand for France, save at Hanau; for French soldiers, 
more than any other, are the worst to retrieve a disaster. 

" The defensive system," to quote t\iQ Memoirs of Mai-shal 
Ney, " accords ill with the disposition of the French sol- 
dier, at least if it is not to be maintained by successive 
diversions and excursions ; in a word, if you are not con- 
stantly occupied in that little warfare, inactivity destroys 
the force of troops who rest continually on the defensive. 
They are obliged to be constantly on the alert night and 
day ; while, on the other hand, offensive expeditions 
wisely combined raise the spirit of the soldier, and pre- 
vent him from having time to ponder on the real cause of 
his dangerous situation. It is in the offensive that you 
find the French soldier inexhaustible in resources. His 
active disposition and valour in assaults double his power. 
A general should never hesitate to march with the bayonet 
against an enemy, if the ground is favourable for the use 
of that weapon. It is in the attach, in fine, that you 
accustom the French soldier to every species of warfare — 
alike to brave the enemy's fire, and to leave the field open 
to the development of his intelligence and courage." 

But now the spirit of the French soldiers was almost 
dead for a time ; and so ill was this retreat conducted, that 
the rear-guard, with 20,000 sick and wounded, fell into 
the hands of the enemy. 

Macdonald was at the battle of Hanau, the last stand 
made by this discomfited host in Hesse Cassel. There 
the French were attacked by the Austrians and Bava- 
rians, whom they routed, and then continued retreating, 
the whole of their cavalry hewing a passage, sword in 
hand, through the lines of the enemy. 

He was now despatched by the Emperor to Cologne, 
with orders to organize a new army. These instructions 
he found the impossibility of fulfilling, so he abandoned 
the Bhine, along the banks of which the bayonets of the 
lilies were glittering everywhere, and falling back into 
&e Interior of ancient France, with the war-worn veterans 
♦f his shattered column, he formed the left wing of the 



MARSHAL MACDONALD. 345 

retreating army ; and at its head, during tlie campaign of 
1814, he gave more than one severe repulse to the Prus- 
sians, "who were pressing towards Paris under Marslial 
Bluch ir. These encounters were chiefly on the banks of 
the Marne, and especially at Nangis, in the north of 
France, where he fought a severe action with the allies on 
the 17th of February; but these struggles and all the 
valour of the French Imperialists were vain, for ere long 
the capital was taken ; then Germany found itself freed 
from oppression ; Holland rang with acclamations on the 
downfall of Napoleon ; and Wellington had halted in his 
long career of victory, on the banks of the Garonne, and 
by the hill of Toulouse. 

Macdonald adhered to the fallen Emperor — the child 
of Destiny — and was with him in the old palace of Fon- 
tainebleau at the time of his abdication from the most 
splendid of European thrones. Hope had fled. His army 
was dispersed and crumbling to pieces ; its great officers 
and leaders had abandoned hjm; and such is the instability 
of human affairs, that the people of whose blood he had 
been so lavish — the people to whom he had been a demi- 
god — were turning with ardour to another monarch, and 
^velcomed the foemen against whom they had struggled 
for more than twenty years of war and carnage that were 
without parallel. 

" The wreck of the army assembled at Fontainebleau,'* 
says General Bourienne, "the remains of a million of men 
levied in fifteen months — comprising the corps of Marshals 
Oudinot, 'Nej, Macdonald, and General Gerard — did not 
exceed twenty-five thousand." 

Various interviews that took place lei ween Napoleon 
and the Duke of Tarentum about this lim3 are carefully 
detailed by this gossiping old soldier, in the supplement tr 
the Biographie Universelle, and other memoirs. 

Macdonald with his corps had marched in with at 
speed from Montereau, on receipt of an order from the 
Emperor, that he meant to march on Paris — a resolution 
that filled his officers with consternation. On the marshal's 
arrival at the palace, the generals waited on him in a 
body, to request that he would place before the Emperor, 



344 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

the rashness and desperation of attempting to recapture 
Paris from the allies. 

"Messieurs," said he, "in the present juncture, such 
advice might displease his Majesty — leave the matter 
to mo." 

As soon as he presented himself before Napoleon — 

*' Well, marshal," said he, " how do things go 1" 

" Very ill, sire." 

"What ! Very ill 1 How is your division disposed?" 

" It is completely discouraged, sire ; recent events at 
Paris have spread consternation through its ranks." 

" Think you," asked the Emperor, " it will join with me 
in a movement upon Paris 1" 

" Trust not to that, sire," was the desponding answer ; 
" should I give such an order, I should hazard being dis- 
obeyed." 

" But what are we to do V said the Emperor, pas- 
sionately. " I cannot remain as I am ! I shall march 
against Paris ; I will punish these inconstant Parisians, 
and the folly of the senate! Woe to the government 
they have plastered up waiting the return of their Bour- 
bons. To-morrow I shall place mj; self at the head of my 
Old Guard, and to-morrow we shall be in the Tuileries 1" 

" Sire," urged Macdonald, " are you ignorant that a 
provisional government has been established?" 

"I know it." 

" Then, sire, read this — a letter from Marshal Bournon- 
ville, announcing the sentence of forfeiture pronounced by 
the senate, and the resolution of the allied generals not to 
treat with you." 

The countenance of Napoleon became violently con- 
tracted. After a pause, he exclaimed, furiously, 

" I shall march upon Paris !" 

" March upon Paris, sire," reiterated Macdonald ; "' that 
design must be renounced, for not a sword will leave its 
scabbard to follow you." 

Finding all indeed over, the bitter subject of his abdica- 
tion came to be gravely considered, and he handed to the 
marshal a document, on the 4th April, stating that he 
"was ready to quit the thi'one of France. 



MARSHAL MACDONALD. 345 

The tender and honourable part acted by Macdonahl at 
this humiliating but memorable time was duly appre- 
ciated by the Emperor, who has done him ample justice. 
With Marshal Ney and the Duke of Yicenza, he was 
named one of the commissioners sent by Napoleon to the 
Emperor Alexander. 

'•' Well, Duke of Tarentum," said the former, before the 
marshal left Fontainebleau, " do you think a regency is 
the only thing possible ]" 

" Yes, sire." 

" Well," continued Napoleon, who had now recovered 
his composure; "I charge you with my message to the 
Emperor Alexander; you will go with Ney instead of 
Marmont. / rel;i/ on you, and I hope you have entirely 
forgotten the circumstances which separated us so long]" 

'• Oh, sire, I have never once thought of them since 
1809." 

"I rejoice to hear it," replied Napoleon with emotion; 
*' but marshal — I must now make the acknowledgment — 
/ was wrong r 

" Sire !" exclaimed Macdonald ; the Emperor pressed 
his hand and faltered out but one word, 

"Go."* 

Macdonald vehemently urged that a regency should be 
established in France, in the person of Maria Louisa, in 
favour of her son, the young King of Rome, and violent 
altercations took place at the conference. 

" Speak not to me, sir," said he to Bournonville, who op- 
posed him ; " your conduct has made me forget the friend- 
ship of thirty years !" " As for you, sir," he added, turning 
to Dupont, " your behaviour towards the Emperor is not 
generous. I acknowledge that he may have been unjust 
to you in the affair of Baylen ; but how long has it been 
the fashion to avenge a personal wrong at the expense of 
the country?" 

" Gentlemen," exclaimed the Duke of Yicenza, " do not 
forget that you are in the presence of the Emperor of 
Russia." 

The energy with which Macdonald urged the cause of 
• Bowienne, 



346 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUXE. 

Napoleon embarrassed the Emperor of Russia ; but neither 
the eloquence with which he spoke of the military glory 
of France, and the resolution of himself and his comrades 
never to abandon the family of one who had led them so 
often to victory, and with whom they had shared so many 
perils in war, nor the arguments with which he sought to 
enforce the regency, were successful ; and at midnight on 
the 6th, he returned in dejection to Fontainebleau, to 
render, with Ney and Caulaincourt, an account of his 
mission. Napoleon again exhibited much emotion, and 
said, with a sigh, 

" I know, marshal, all you have done for me — with what 
warmth you have pleaded the cause of my son. They 
xiesire my simple and unconditional abdication? Well — 
act on my behalf. Go, and again defend my interests and 
those of my family." 

Bourienne and others thus relate their last interview. 

" Alas !" said Napoleon, " I am no longer rich enough 
to recompense your last service, Macdonald ; but I can 
perceive how unwisely I was formerly prejudiced against 
you. I can also see the designs of those who inspired me 
with that prejudice." 

" Sire," replied the marshal, " I have already had the 
honour to assure you, that since 1809 I have been youi's 
in life and death !" 

" Since I can no longer recompense you as I would wish, 
I pray you to remember that I shall never forget the 
faithful service you have rendered me !" 

Napoleon then turned to Caulaincourt, saying, 

" Duke of Yicenza, bring my sabre." 

Caulaincourt brought the weapon, which was one of 
-exquisite workmanship, and placed it in the hands of the 
Emperor. 

" Behold," said he, " a recompence, Macdonald, which, I 
believe, will give you pleasure. This sabre, which was 
given to me by Murad Bey, in Egypt, after we had won 
the battle of Mount Tabor, accept, my friend — a gift 
which, I believe, will gratify you." 

" Sire," replied the marshal, whose voice trembled as he 
received the sabre from the Emperor ; " if ever I have a 



MARSHAL MACDONALD. 347 

-son, this weapon shall be his noblest heritage ; and as suck 
I will guard it with my life." 

'•' Give me your hand, and embrace me !" exclaimed Napo- 
leon; and throwing themselves into each others arms, they 
parted in tears — parted never to meet again as friends.* 

In obedience to the commands of the fallen Emperor, 
the marshal, on the day succeeding this impressive fare- 
well, sent in his adhesion to the new government. 

" Now," he wrote, " that I am freed from my jillegiance 
to the Emperor Napoleon, I have the honour to announce 
to you — the provisional government — that I accord with 
the national wish which recals the dynasty of Bourbon to 
the throne of France." 

On the 6th May, he was named member of the Council of 
War, and Chevalier of St. Louis. This was an order insti- 
tuted by Louis XIY. in 1693, and, until the revolution, it 
remained entirely in possession of the French army. The 
badge was a gold cross of eight points, hung from a broad 
crimson ribbon. On the 6th June, he was created a peer 
of the realm by the surviving descendant of the Capet 
family, Louis XYIIL, who seemed now firmly seated on 
the throne of France. But this monarch, as soon as order 
was duly established, was sufficiently rash and unwise to 
raise doubts about the validity of that law by which, 
during the stormy days of the republic, the property of 
the emigrant noblesse had been confiscated and sold. This 
was an unpleasant topic to broach at a time when 
Napoleon, like a caged lion, in Elba was watching for the 
moment to break forth ; and Macdonald foresaw that mis- 
fortunes might ensue from its discussion ; thus, on the 
3rd December, 1814, he made an oration which succeeded. 
in tranquillizing the fears of those who had made fortunes 
amid the anarchy of the republic, or with the growth of 
the late military empire. He had, moreover, the amiable 
intention of succouring the aged nobles and chevaliers of 
St. Louis, who were returning home after twenty-two years 

* *' The sabre I recognised at once; only since I had last seen it, 
the following woids had been engraved on the blade : — Sabre worn 
by the Emjoeror on the day of the battle of Mount Tabor.'' — Bouriennt, 
vol. iv. 



348 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

of exile, and the families of those whose fidelity to the 
ancient monarchy had involved them in penury, expatria- 
tion, and ruin. 

His proposition was to raise twelve millions of annual 
rents, to be divided in proportions according to the rank 
and necessities of the claimants. His motion was received 
by all honourable men with favour, and with lively grati- 
tude by those whose cause he had undertaken. He also 
advocated the hard case of his old comrades, the veteran 
soldiers of the Empire, who had lost their pay and pensions 
'"y the success of the restoration. 

Macdonald won the hearts of all by these proposed 
measures ; but they were brought forward too late in the 
year to have any practical or beneficial result ; for now 
the eyes of all men were turned towards the little isle of 
Elba, from whence the Violet, as his soldiers named Na- j 
j)oleon, was confidently expected to come with the spring. 1 

About this time, learning that Madame Moreau, the 
widow of his old friend and brother soldier, had secretly 
applied in his favour to an influential friend at Naples, to 
the effect that the revenues of the dukedom of Tarentum, 
which had been long withheld, should be continued to 
him, he wrote to the French plenipotentiary at the court 
of Ferdinand, praying that, with all gratitude to Madame 
Moreau, there might be no interference in the matter. 

"Ferdinand of Naples," said he, with noble spirit, 
" owes me nothing, for having routed his armies, revolu- 
tionized his kingdom, and forced him to seek refuge in 
Sicily." 

" Had I not laid it down as a principle," replied Ferdi- 
•^-and, " not to maintain one of the French endowments, I 
>,<ould assuredly have made an exception in favour of 
Marshal Macdonald." 

On the 1st of March, 1815, the Emperor landed from 
Elba, and again Europe vibrated with war. The fol- 
lowers of the Bourbons were struck with consternation, 
and the soldiers to whom Louis XVIII. looked for pro- 
tection and defence, were naturally enough flocking to 
the standard of their old leader; and he could turn to 
none, in his desertion and dismay, save a few officei-s of 



MARSHAL MACDONALD. 349 

higli rank, whose spirit of honour made them adhere to 
their oath of allegiance. The first to whom he addressed 
himself was Marshal Macdonald. He sent that officer to 
Lyons, where he arrived on the 8th of March, and found 
the Comte d'Artois in despair at the sullen and mutinous 
spirit exhibited by the troops he commanded. 

Macdonald, of course, could not be surprised at this 
conduct in the soldiers, while his own heart led him 
towards the Emperor, and an oath tied him to the throne 
»f the Bourbons; but he ordered a general parade of all 
the troops, and reviewed them before the prince. Still 
the same sullenness and the same silence, so unusual iu 
French soldiers during a time of excitement, were apparent 
in the officers and men. So strong did this feeling 
become, that the Comte d'Artois (according to the Voice 
from St. Helena) had to withdraw in haste from Lyons, 
accompanied by one solitary dragoon, while Macdonald 
marched with a regiment of cavalry and two battalions of 
infantry of the line towards the bridge of the Rhone, 
which Napoleon was approaching at the head of a few 
soldiers of the Old Guard and a force increasing every 
hour by the regiments which deserted as they were de- 
spatched against him. 

The marshal seized and barricaded the bridge, his 
soldiers still obeying in silence, till the brass drums of the 
Emperor were heard ringing on the highway; again the 
old tricolour was seen, and the eagles that had spread 
their gilded wings o\'er so many fatal fields were glitter- 
ing in the sun. The marshal ordered his troops to fix 
bayonets and load with ball-cartridge. 

Where was then the memory of that farewell at Fon- 
tainebleau? and where the sword of Murad Bey — the 
souvenir of Mount Tabor 1 The marshal was deeply moved 
at that moment, but he remembered the oath he had 
sworn to Louis XVIII. 

The 4th Hussars, who formed the imperial advanced 
guard, dashed boldly up to the bridge at full speed, and, 
brandishing their sabres, shouted their old battle-cry, 
" Vive V Empereur r 

The effisct was electric. The soldiers of Macdonald 



350 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

could no longer restrain their long-smothered enthusiasm,^ 
They, at least, had sworn no fealty to King Louis. With 
a shout they responded, and, waving their caps and 
muskets in welcome, tore aside the barricade, and rushed 
to meet the Emperor, leaving the marshal on horseback, 
and by the roadside alone. 

The 4:th Hussars wished to seize and deliver him to the 
Emperor, but, animated by a high sense of chivalry, his 
own dragoons, who had come with him from Lyons, 
would by no means permit this, and drew their ranks 
across the road until he escaped. He returned imme- 
diately to Paris, and was desired by Louis XVIIL to 
command in the army formed under the Due de Berri. 
This ai^my proved, however, but a phantom, as the soldiers 
composing it almost to a man joined the banner of the 
Emperor. 

Left thus alone, Macdonald repaired to the unfortunate 
king, and on the night of the 20th of March accompanied 
him on his retreat to Men in j but he again returned to 
Paris, where pleading his oath of fidelity, sworn by the 
Emperor's desire to the Bourbons, he declined to serve 
the imperial cause or become one of the Chamber of Peers 
under it — a refusal, doubtless, most painful to one who 
knew that he owed all his rank and honours to Napoleon. 
Kelinquishing all these, as it were, for a time, the marshal 
duke enrolled himself as a simple grenadier in the National 
Guard of Paris, and as such did military duty during the 
usurpation, as it was named; and in the plain uniform of 
this corps, divested of medals, crosses, and epaulettes, he 
appeared as a private sentinel before Louis XVIII. on his 
return to the Tuileries. 

On the capitulation of Paris to the allies the remains 
of Napoleon's army, then encamped beyond the Loire, 
were placed under the command of Macdonald, whose 
instnictions were to remodel and re-organize the regiments, 
a difficult and arduous mission, which he accomplished 
with equal fidelity and address; but the soldiers, dispirited 
by the defeat at Waterloo, awed into submission by the 
flight of their idol Napoleon, and the presence of the 
overwhelming masses of the allies, obeyed him in silence 



MARSHAL MACDONALD. 351 

and dejection. All was over now with the Bonapartists. 
The army of the Empire was broken and scattered, like 
the marshal dukes who had led it to those glories and 
conquests of which there remained but the memory now ! 

In the words of M. Eleury de Chabulon, " Marshal Ney 
was the first to give the alarm and despair of the safety 
of his country. Marshal Soult had abjured his command, 
Mashal Massena, exhausted by victory, had no longer the 
strength required by circumstances ; Marshal Macdonald, 
deaf to the war-cry of his old companions, left his sword 
peacefully in its scabbard ; Mai*shal Jourdan was on the 
Pthine; Marshal Mortier had the gout at Beaumont; 
Marshal Suchet evinced repugnance and irresolution ; and 
finally, the Marshals Davoust and Grouchy no longer 
enjoyed the confidence of the army." 

Thus the throne that had been so long propped by 
bayonets and by the splendid chivalry of the Old Guard 
and of the whole imperial army, had crumbled into dust 
at last ! 

For his talent in organizing the army of the Loire 
Macdonald received the office of Grand Chancellor of the 
Legion of Honour, succeeding the Abbe de Pradt on the 
10th of January, 1816, and on the 3rd of May, in that 
year, he was appointed Knight Commander of St. Louis. 

It is related that, when dining one day at the Tuileries, 
Charles X. said to him — 

*' How came it to pass, marshal, that when serving in 
our Irish regiment of Dillon, which emigrated loith us 
entirely, you still remained in France ?" 

" Sire," he replied, " because I was in love with Made- 
moiselle Jacob j and I applaud myself for it, since to that 
girl's love I owe the honour of being this day at table with 
your Majesty." 

" How so r 

'•'Because, had I emigrated, I might have lived in 
penuiy and died of despair; but now, sire, I am a duke 
and marshal of France." 

This reply was so frank and politic, that the king ques- 
tioned him no more on that subject. He was one of the 
four marshals who had command of the Royal Guard; 



352 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNK 

and as one of a commission appointed to inquire into the 
recruiting of the army, on the 24th of February, 1818, he 
made an able report upon the oppressive law of conscrip- 
tion, urging upon the French ministry the British system 
of voluntary enlistment. 

Four years after this, by a royal ordinance, he procured 
the reversion of his rank and titles to the Marquis de 
Rochedragon, his son-in-law ; but this ordinance was use- 
less, as there was no prospect of that noble having any 
family. Thus, the mai'shal being anxious to have a male 
heir— all his children being daughters — he married, in his 
fifty-eighth year, Mademoiselle de Bourgoing, and from 
that period led a quiet and retired life. Soon after his 
marriage he came to Scotland, the land of his forefathers. 

Accompanied by his aide-de-camp. Colonel Count 
Couessiu, a nobleman who was descended from an ancient 
family in Brittany, and was the husband of his niece, 
Macdonald arrived in Edinburgh about the middle of 
June, 1825. He remained at an hotel, where he received 
the cards of all persons of distinction in the vicinity, and 
was visited by every gentleman in the city who bore his 
name. He attended mass in the Catholic church of St. 
Mary, and viewed all the great " sights" of the Scottish 
metropolis. A Mr. Macdonald Buchanan invited him to 
a dinner at which Sir Walter Scott, Lord Jeffrey, and 
Henry Cockburn, were present, with several gentlemen 
who claimed the marshal as a clansman and relation. 
*' From what I see of you, gentlemen," said he, when 
returning thanks after his health had been proposed, "and 
from what I have remarked of this country, I feel more 
pride than ever in having Scottish blood in my veins." 

With great interest he visited the battle-field of Preston- 
pans, and viewed the ground from the Thorntree, where 
Colonel Gardiner was slain by the Highlanders. After 
being feted at Hopeton House, he left Edinburgh for the 
Highlands, with the intention of visiting every part of the 
country in which his father had accompanied Prince 
Charles Edward, during their flight and concealment after 
CuUoden. 

On his way north, he visited the field of Bannockbui'n, 



MARSHAL MACDONALD. 353 

on the 24th of June, the anniversary of the battle ; and, 
after surveying the ground with a soldier's eye, he praised 
the dispositions and the valour of Robert Bruce. Every- 
where he expressed himself " enraptured with the beauty 
of the country ; and above all, of the metropolis of Scot- 
land." He visited the " fair city" ofJ^erth; and accom- 
panied by Macdonald of Staffa, reached Inverness early in 
July, and went immediately to the field of Culloden^ 
where his father's sword had been drawn for the last of 
the Stuarts. There he gazed about him long and thought- 
fully, surveying the desert moor, which is yet dotted by 
the green graves of the loyal a»ti brave men who fell 
there. 

lie expressed astonishment that the prince, with hi& 
slender army of swordsmen, destitute alike of horse and 
artillery, should have fought twice the number of regular 
troops on such ground, instead of retiring into the moun- 
tains, and harassing the army of Cumberland by a 
guerilla warfare. 

In the ill-fated Comet (a steamer which was wrecked 
a short time after, uuder distressing circumstances) ha 
left the Highland capital for the wild mountain-shore of 
Arisaig ; and to a large dinner-party on board he mada 
an address expressive of his admiration for the Scottish 
clans, " than whom," said he, " no people, I think, deserve 
to be more esteemed for their national character and 
uniform good conduct." Everywhere he was feted and 
welcomed with Highland ardour and hospitality, and in. 
many instances by old Highland soldiers and retired 
officers, who had served against him in Holland, Ger- 
many, and Spain. 

On his landing under the walls of Armidale Castle in 
Sleat, on the southern shore of Skye, he was saluted by 
fifteen pieces of cannon, and was received by a body 
of his clansmen in full Highland arms and array, under 
Lord Macdonald. 

At the beautiful ruins of Castle Tiorm, in " the country 
of Clanranald," there was presented to him an aged clans- 
man, named Alaster Macdonald, then in his hundredth 
year, wlio had known his father, and remembered the me* 

\ A 



354 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

lancholy embarkatiou of Prince Charles and his fngitive 
followers, seveiity-niue years before. With this old name- 
sake the marshal conversed long, and asked him many 
questions about the j^ersonal appearance, &c., of Prince 
Charles Edward. 

He left the Scottish isles in a government ship, and 
reached Dublin on the 16th of July ; and there he again 
met Sir Walter Scott, who had arrived in the same city 
on the previous day. 

" Respecting his visit (to Scotland) a singular tradition 
is preserved in France," says Dr. Memes ; " namely, that, 
on being introduced to Sir Walter Scott, the mai*shal 
offered to place at the disposal of the historian authentic 
and unpublished intelligence on certain important and 
misrepresented events. Sir Walter declined the proffere 1 
Old, with the remark, ' Thank you, marshal ; but I pre 
fer taking my materials from popular and current reports.' 
We relegate this to the class of fables." 

After his return to France, he led a life of quiet and 
retirement, and for nearly twenty-five years his name 
was rarely heard. He grew rapidly feeble ; for his long 
career of war in almost every country in Europe, and 
the numerous severe wounds he had received, brought age 
quickly upon him. 

He died in his seventy-fifth year, on the 24th of Sep- 
tember, 1840, at his country house near Courcelles. A 
noble and generous eulogy was pronounced upon him by 
General Count Philip de Segur, author of a history of 
Napoleon's Russian expedition, and who in former days 
had been the aide-de-camp of Macdonald. 

The latter was pure in spii-it and generous in heart, 
faithful and benevolent in peace, as he was brave and 
tme in battle. Sarrazen thus describes him : — 

" The Duke of Tarentum is of a good size, of a slender 
make, but robust and pale-faced, with eyes full of fire ; 
his smile is sardonic, his bearing military, and his manners 
polished. I believe him to be a sincere fiiiend; and 
although he showed a weakness of character in the council 
of war which occasioned the loss of the battle of Trebia, 



MARSHAL MACDONALD. 355 

we cannot but allow him to have all the firmness neces-^ 
eary to a good general." 

It has been already shown that the misfortune on the 
banks of the Trebia arose from circumstances over which 
the marshal had no control ; but it was a battle that he 
fought long and gallantly. 

He was thrice married ; first to Mademoiselle Jacob, 
one of the most beautiful girls in France, by whom he 
had two daughters, one of whom married Sylvester Rene, 
Duke of Massa, in Italy ; and the youngest to Alphonse 
Comte de Perregaux. He married secondly, Madame 
Joubert, formerly Mademoiselle de Montholon, widow of 
his comrade the brave General Joubert, who was slain in 
battle against Suwarrow at Novi, on the 16th of August, 
1799. By her the mr*rshal had an only daughter, after- 
wards the Marchioness de Hochedragon. He married 
thirdly, Madame de Bourgoing, daughter of the superin- 
tendent of the Royal Hospital at St. Denis, and widow of 
the Ambassador Baron de Bourgoing."* 

They had two children : to the joy of the old marshal 
one of these was a son, whom he named Alexander, and 
who in October, 1824, was held at the baptismal font by 
his Majesty Charles X. and Madame the Dauphinesse, and 
who now inherits the dukedom of Tarentum, and the 
sabre of Mont Tabor. 

Such was the career of Stephen Macdonald, the son of 
an obscure Scottish fugitive from the field of Culloden, 
who thus became a Marshal Duke of the Empire, and by 
his worth and bravery shed a glory on his father's name., 
and on the rank he won. 

• Biographic Universellef &c. 



AA2 



356 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 



^j)omas fdgtll, 



OF BINNS, GENERAL OF THE SCOTTISH ARMY, AND FIRST 
COLONEL OF THE SCOTS GREY DRAGOONS. 

In my novel of The Scottish Cavalier I have endeavoured 
to portray the character of this celebrated cavalier 
oflficer, with all that military sternness and ferocity of 
disposition which has generally been attributed to hinij 
but chiefly by his enemies, for the poor man seems never 
to have found a single friend among the many historians 
of the Covenant. Thus, notwithstanding his unwavering 
loyalty to the House of Stuart in the days of its declen- 
sion, by his extreme severity when that House was in the 
zenith of its power, he became so unpopular in Scotland, 
that his memory is still execrated there. He is stigma- 
tized as a " persecutor," as the Bloody Dalyell, whose 
spirit is yet averred to haunt the fields where he routed 
or slew the children of tlie Covenant — who had sold 
himself to the devil; one who was shot-proof, and 

''Whose form no darkening shadow traced 
Upon the sunny wall ;" 

one who, when he spat, burned a hole in the earth; one 
in whose military boots water would boil, and whose 
spectre, habited in a buflf coat and morion, wearing that 
voluminous white beard for which he was so remarkable, 
still haunts the house in which he was born and the tomb 
in which he lies. 

Descended from an old baronial family, which was 
afterwards ennobled by the Earldom of Carnwath, and 
which acquired its estates about the end of the sixteenth 
isentui'y he was the son of Thomas Dalyell, of the Binns, 



THOMAS DALYELL, OF BINNS. 357 

in West Lothian, and of the Honourable Janet Bruce, a 
daughter of the first Lord Bruce of Kinloss, the eminent 
minister of James VI. — a peer whose skill in statecraft, in 
conjunction with the Earl of Mar, was of gi^eat service in 
securing James's peaceful accession to the English throne 
in 1603. 

Thomas Dalyell, the younger, is said to have been born 
about the year 1599, during the reign of James VI. in 
Scotland, at his father's house of Binns, in the parish of 
Abercorn, Linlithgowshire. The ancient name is Dalyell ; 
but the z has since crept in, by the corruption of the 
letter y in old Scottish orthography, and hence the pro- 
nunciation of it so puzzling to an English tongue. 

Dalyell is first heard of as an officer of those auxiliary 
Scottish troops sent to Ireland by their native Parliament, 
at the request of Charles I., to protect the Ulster colo- 
nists, and assist in repressing the rebellion under Sir 
Phelim O'Neil and Macguire, when the dreadful massacre 
of the English took place. 

For this service the Parliament of Scotland levied 
eight battalions of infantry, of whom two thousand five 
hundred were Highlanders. Arms for three thousand 
men were oftered to the Irish Protestants, and the castles 
of Craigmore and Carrickfergus, two small strongholds 
in the north of Ireland, were supplied with all requisite 
munitions of war from the magazines at Dumbarton. 

The colonels of the eight Scottish regiments which 
mustered in November, 1641, were as follow: — 

Archibald, Earl of Argyle, afterwards executed for 
treason in 1660. 

Sir Duncan Campbell, of Auchinbreck, who was after- 
wards slain at the battle of Inverlochy. 

Sir Mungo Campbell, of Lawers. These three had 
Highland battalions. 

Alexander Lord Forbes, who had served the King of 
Sweden. 

William, Earl of Lothian. 

Alexander, Earl of Eglinton. 

Lord Sinclair. 

The Earl of Lindesay. 



S58 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

Major-GeDeral Sir David Leslie, of Pitcairly, was to 
command the whole. Argyle deputed the leading of his 
regiment to its lieutenant-colonel, James Wallace, of 
Auchans; Lord Sinclair's was led by his major, Sir James 
Turner, the celebrated military memorialist, and that of 
the Lord Lindesay was led by Major Borthwick. 

Thomas Dalyell was an officer in these forces, but to 
which corps he was attached is not clearly known. He 
was with the first column of those auxiliaries which, 
under Major-General Munro — an officer who had long 
served with distinction in Germany, at the head of Lord 
Reay's Highlanders — embarked on the 2nd of April, 1642, 
for Ireland. He had with him three thousand infantry, 
six hundred cavalry, and a train of guns. Landing in 
the north of Ireland, he took possession of Carrickfergus, 
and in it placed a garrison under young Dalyell's 
command. 

The second column sailed for Ireland on the 27th of 
July under Sir David Leslie, the same general who after- 
wards commanded the Scottish army at the battle of 
Dunbar, and for his services was raised to the peerage as 
Lord Newark. 

At GaiTickfergus Munro shot thirty Irish prisoners 
who were accused of committing outrages upon the Pro- 
testants. Local tradition has swelled this number to 
three thousand, and adds that they were thrown over 
certain rocks named the Gobbins. 

On the 28th and 29th of April Munro was joined at 
Carrickfergus by Lord Conway and Colonel Chichester, 
with eighteen hundred Engli:;h infantry, five troops of 
horse, and two of dragoons ; and in May he succeeded in 
efi'ecting a junction with Sir Henry Tichbourne of 
Beaulieu, when their united forces mustered only two 
thousand horse and twelve thousand infantry. At this 
time the pay of an English colonel was 3Z. a week ; of a 
captain, 21.; of a private, 3s. 6c?. In 1645 more troops 
were required in Scotland to oppose the Cavaliers on the 
one hand, and the Irish on the other; thus, on the 27th 
of February, the Scottish shires and boroughs mustered a 
great force, whose pay was 6s. Scots per day. 



THOMAS DALYELL, OF F.INNS. 855 

It is not improbable that Dalyell was at tlie battle of 
Benburb, a village of Tyrone, where, in the spring of 
1646, General Munro was defeated by the Irish, and forced 
to retire, with the loss of three thousand four hundred 
and twenty-three slain; Lord Montgomerie, twenty-one 
other officers, a hundred and fifty privates, the Scottish 
artillery, twenty stand of colours, and fifteen hundred 
baggage and- cavalry horses taken. "In vain did Lord 
Blaney take pike in hand, and stand in the ranks. Thougii 
exposed to the play of Munro's guns and musketry, th© 
Irish infantry charged up hill without firing a shot. 
They met a gallant resistance ; but Blaney and his men 
lield their ground long, till the superior vivacity and 
freshness of the Irish clansmen bore him down." 

In 1648 we still find Dalyell, then a colonel, in com- 
mand at Carrickfergus, when that little fortress was 
surprised by General Monk, who took possession of it in 
the name of the English Parliament, and made both 
Alunro and Dalyell prisoners of war. The former he sent 
to London. 

Henry Guthry, Bishop of Dunkeld, in his Memoirs, 
asserts that the castle was surrendered to Monk trea- 
cherously, by the Earl of Glencairn's regiment, which 
formed the garrison. 

Dalyell was so deeply imbued by the Cavalier loyalty 
of the period, that about this time, on the death of 
Charles I., to testify his grief, he made a vow never to 
shave his beard until he had avenged him; and he culti- 
vated this appendage to his stern visage until it attained 
crreat lenofth and volume, for it covered his whole breast 
and descended below his girdle, as we may still see by 
the portraits of him. At this period vow beards, as they 
were named, were not unusual with the more resolute and 
enthusiastic of the Cavaliers. The comb with which 
Dalyell was wont to dress his hair is still preserved at 
Binns, " and it gives a vast idea of the extent of beard 
and of the majestic character of Dalyell in general, being 
no less than twelve inches broad, while the teeth are at 
least six inches deep." 

Dalyell was too enterprising and restless a spirit to 



360 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

remain long a prisoner ; for he soon achieved his liberty, 
and, on returning to Scotland, was appointed major- 
general, and held that rank in the army, which consisted 
of eleven regiments of horse and twenty battalions of 
infantry, with fourteen field pieces, and which was led by 
Oharles II. into England in IGol. At the head of his 
brigade ho fought bravely at the fatal field of Worcester, 
where, on the defeat of the Scots, he had the misfortune 
to be again taken prisoner, and, with other officers and 
captives of rank, was marched, under a sure guard, to 
London, and committed to the Tower. 

Sir Walter Scott, in his history of Scotland, mentions 
(but I know not on what authority) that he had previously 
served in the wars of Montrose. 

For his loyalty and service in England his estates were 
tleclared, by the dominant party in Scotland, to be for- 
feited, and his name was specially excluded from tlie 
general Act of Indemnity. But Dalyell was not to be 
withheld even by the guards or gates of the Tower of 
London, for he soon after effected his escape again — Itow 
is not recorded; but after lurking somewhere on the 
Continent, he suddenly made his. appearance, in March, 
1 654, off" the northern coast of Scotland, in a small vessel, 
iit a time when the Lowlands were overawed by eighteen 
of Cromwell's garrisons and by ten thousand regular 
forces maintained by him, by Argyle, and his adherents. 

This was in anticipation of the Restoration, and at a 
time when the cause of royalty in Britain seemed most 
desperate. Being joined by a Colonel Blackadder and a 
slender band of loyalists, he took possession of the castle 
of Skelko, and, wherever he went, boldly proclaimed the 
king, and denounced Argyle and Cromwell as rebels and 
regicides. To stimulate his exertions, he received the 
following characteristic letter from the youiig king, 
Charles II. :— 

" Tom Dalyell, 

" Though I need say nothing to you by this honest 
bearer. Captain Mewes, who can tell you all I would have 
isaid; yet I am willing to fiive it to vou under my own hand, 



THOMAS DALYELL, OF BINNS. 361 

that I am very much pleased to hear how constant you 
are in your affection to me, and in your endeavours to ad- 
vance my service. We have all a hard work to do ; yet 
1 doubt not God will carry us through it : and you can 
never fear that I will forget the good part you have acted, 
which, trust me, shall be rewarded, whenever it shall be 
in the power of your affectionate friend, 

"Charles R" * 
*' Golen, 30th Dec. 1654." 

This attempt of Dalyell's had been made in unison 
with the Earl of Glencairn's rash but gallant expedition 
to the Highlands, when Glengarry, Lochiel, Struan, and 
other chiefs, whose swords were never in the scabbard 
when Scotland or her king required them, met in the 
wilds of Lochearn, and made an arrangement to rise in 
arms and attempt a restoration ; but all hope of success 
soon proved desperate, and they dispersed. Daly ell aban- 
doned the castle he had taken, and retired once more to 
the Continent, where he obtained from the exiled king a 
letter or certificate, in which his bravery, loyalty, and 
faith, were warmly extolled and recommended. 

Furnished with this, and having nothing else in the 
world now but his sword and his stout heart, the penni- 
less cavalier resolved to seek his fortune in foreign wars. 
Proceeding to Russia, which has ever formed so ample a 
field for Scottish enterprise and valour, he visited the bar- 
barous court of the czar, and applied for military service. 

The sovereign then reigning was Alexis Michailowitch, 
grandson of the patriarch Fedor Komanoff, who in his fif- 
teenth year had succeeded in 1645 to the title of czar; 
and is chiefly remarkable as being the father of Peter the 
Great, who raised the Muscovites from the depths of bar- 
barism to a state of comparative civilizatioi:. 

The letter of Charles II. at once procured for Dalyell 
the rank of lieutenant-general in the service of Muscovy; 
but great obscurity involves his career in that country, 
for even the wars in which he was ensjaojed were little 
noted by the rest of Europe. 

* Chambers' Eminent Scotsmen. 



362 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

He was now in his fifty-fifth year. 

Alexis invited several other Scots to join his army 
being anxious to introduce a more regular system of dis< 
cipline into his ranks; but the most eminent of thesff 
were General Druuimond, Governor of Smolensko, and 
the two Gordons,* who, under Peter the Great, brought 
to perfection the standing forces of Russia, which 
however were so few, that in 1687 thoy amounted to no 
more than ten thousand men. An old tojDographical 
work, published at the Savoy in London, in 1711, men- 
tions that " the Russians endeavoured to bring their sol- 
diers under better discipline ; for which end they made 
use of a great many Scots and German officers, who in- 
struct them in all the warlike exercises that are practised 
by other European nations." 

At that time — the beginning of the last century — their 
infantry were armed with a musket, sword, and an axe, 
which were slung behind; their cavalry were clad in 
steel morions and cuirasses, and were armed with bows, 
arrows, iron mouls, sabres, targets, and spears; and in the 
epoch of Daly ell, their army had a great battle-drum, 
which was fastened to the backs of four horses abreast, 
and had eight drummers to beat upon it. 

His first active service was against the Poles, with 
whom Alexis Michailo witch had gone to war in 1653, 
and from whom he captured Smolensko, which he united to 
Russia, and Kiow, after committing frightful devastations 

* Alexander Gordon, of Auchintoul, major-general in the service 
of the czar, wrote a life of Peter I., which was published at Aber- 
deen in 1755. " On the 30th November, this year," says this work, 
"died also General Patrick Gordon, much regretted by the czar and 
the whole nation. His majesty visited him five times during his illness 
— was present at the moment he expired, and shut his eyes with his 
own hands. He was buried also in great state. He was son to 
John Gordon, Esq., of Achlenchries in the county of Aberdeen, 
whose grandfather was a son of the family of Haddo, now Earls of 
Aberdeen." This officer entered the Russian service in the reign of 
Alexis ; and Alexander Gordon joined it in 1G93. Both served at 
the capture of Azof ; the younger was at the battle of Narva, and 
was long a prisoner in the hands of the Swedes, In his old age, he 
returned to Scotland, and closed his tlays in peace in his native 
place. 



THOMAS DALYELL, OF EINNS. 363 

in Litliuania. The Russian armies then invaded Livonia^ 
stormed Dorpt, Kokenhausen, and other places, but were 
obliged to retire from before Riga with severe loss. 

Dalyell was now raised to the rank of full general, 
and commanded against the Tartars, and the Turkish ar- 
mies of Mohammed IV. — the son of the debauched Sultan 
Ibrahim — against whom Alexis declared war about this 
time (1654-5); and in these contests, waged at the head of 
barbarous hordes against hordes equally barbarous, the 
wanderer must have acquired much of that unyielding 
sternness, if not. ferocity, which characterized his future 
proceeding's in his own country. In these campaigns quar- 
ter was never asked nor given ; prisoners were shot, be- 
headed, impaled, or put to death by slow fires, and by every 
species of torture that Muscovite brutality, or the most re- 
fined cruelty of the Oriental mind could suggest ; and in 
this terrible arena of foreign service was schooled the 
future commander-in-chief of the Scottish troops — the 
scourge of the Covenanters — he to whom was given full 
power to crush and to destroy the men who struggled for 
freedom of religious opinion, for liberty of conscience, and 
who, as they phrased it, "drew the sword for an oppressed 
Kirk and broken Covenant." 

After eleven years of service in these wild and snow- 
covered regions, Dalyell requested permission, by desire 
of Charles II., to return to Scotland. The king had now 
been restored ; Cromwell was in his grave ; the Parlia- 
ment and great officers of state had once more taken upon 
them the m^5government of Scotland, and a wicked war 
was maintained there against the Presbyterian Church, 
which Lauderdale and his ministry were leaving nothing 
undone to subvert and to suppress. The Laird of Binns 
now requested from the czar a certificate of his faithful 
service in Russia, and a missive to that efiect was passed 
under the great seal of the empire. 

" Part of this document," says Chambers, " was con- 
ceived in the following terms : — 

" That he foi'merly came hither to serve our great Cza- 
rian Majesty : whilst he was with us, he stood against our 
enemies and fought valiantly. The military men that 



364 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

were under his command, lie regulated and disciplined, 
and himself led them to battle: and he did and performed 
everything faithfully, as a noble commander. And for 
his trusty services we were pleased to order the said lieu- 
tenant-general to be a general. And now having peti- 
tioned us to give him leave to return to his own country, 
We, the great Sovereign and Czarian Majesty, were 
pleased to order, that the said noble General, Thomas, the 
son of Thomas Dalyell, should have leave to go to his 
own country. 

" And by this patent of our Czarian Majesty, we do 
testify of him, that he is a man of virtue and honour, and 
of great experience in military affairs. And in case he 
should be willing again to serve our Czarian Majesty, he 
is to let us know of it beforehand, and he shall come into 
the dominions of our Czarian Majesty, with proper pass- 
ports. Given at our Court, in the Metropolitan City of 
Moscow, in the year from the Creation of the World 
7173, January 6."* 

From Russia he was accompanied by his countryman 
and old fellow-soldier, who had served with him in Ire- 
land, General Drummond, who was also summoned by 
Charles II. and obeyed the royal behest. In an Act passed 
by the Scottish Parliament in 1686, granting this officer 
the lands of Torwoodie, it is stated "that upon a call from 
his majesty's royal brother, after his restoration, he left 
a splendid and honourable employment under the Emperor 
of Russia to give obedience to his native prince, and since 
his return to this kingdom, he did good and signal servico 
as major-general, in the defeat of the rebels and suppres- 
sion of the rebellion raised in 1686." 

From a passage in Burnet it would seem, that when the 
nonjuring exiles at Rotterdam and other Covenanters, 
were preparing to rise in arms in 1665, and when Charles 
II. found the necessity of raising more troojis, he formally 
Buramoned Dalyell home. 

"Two gallant officers," continues the Bishop, in the 
" History of his own Times," " that had served him in the 
wars, and when these were over had gone with his letters 
* This must be the Eussian computation of time. 



THOMAS DALYELL, OF BINNS. 365 

to sorve in Muscovy, where one of them, Daly ell, was 
niised to be a general, and the other was advanced to be 
a lieutenant-general and Governor of Smolensko, were 
now, bat not loithout great difficulty, sent back by the czar." 

There can be little doubt that Dalyell returned to 
Scotland, with a heart boiling with rancour against 
those who had sold and destroyed the king; and 
who had brought so many of his brother soldiers — ^the 
Scottish Cavaliers of Montrose, of Hamilton and Munro 
— and so many of his own kinsmen, to the scaffold. With 
this sentiment may have been a longing for vengeance 
upon those who had been so long dominant in the land ; 
who had deprived him of his estate and driven him into 
exile ; and all these bitter sentiments were doubtless fos- 
tered by the inborn prejudice of class, religion, education^ 
and the foreign service of years. To all these must be 
attributed many of the fierce and relentless acts which are 
related of him by the historians of the Covenant. Many 
of these dark deeds must, however, be doubted; and many 
accepted with caution. 

After the Restoration, the Parliament of Scotland, 
which was presided over by Lieutenant -General the Earl 
of Middleton as High Commissioner, proved a very pliant 
and complying body. They granted to Charles II. a 
revenue of 40,000?. for life, and rescinded all the acts 
passed by their wiser predecessors for defining or restrict- 
ing the royal prerogative. The Solemn League and 
Covenant was pronounced a treasonable and seditious 
bond ; and they passed other acts, by which the Earl of 
Lauderdale, Secretary of State for Scotland, gradually 
prepared a way for the abolition of Presbytery, and the 
restoration of an Episcopal Hierarchy. Alarmed by 
these measures, the Scottish Kirk sent James Sharpe, one 
of their most eminent divines, to expostulate with Charles 
II.; but Sharpe abandoned his colours, and betrayed their 
cause by accepting the Archbishopric of St. Andrews, 
while the Marquis of Argyle, James Guthrie, and John- 
stone of Warriston, who had conspired with Cromwell, 
and directly, or indirectly, abetted the sale and execution 
Df Charles I., were consigned to the headsman. Such 



S06 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

was tlie new aspect of affairs, and it made religion and 
rancour grow side by side in the land. 

The rash king next enjoined the Scottish privy coun- 
cil openly to establish Episcopacy, and bishops for the 
new dioceses were consecrated in England; while Fairfowl, 
Archbishop of Glasgow, was insane enough to solicit an 
Act of council to eject all recusant ministers, and close 
their churches until episcopally ordained incumbents could 
be procured : and by this act, three hundred and fifty 
parishes, about a third of those in the kingdom, were 
declared to be vacant; and this tyranny was attempted 
after all the wai*s, battles, and bloodshed in defence of the 
Covenant — after all the armies levied and lives lost 
since 1638, and after the king himself had perished in 
attempting to subvert the rights of the people ! Now, 
the Scots became justly more than ever inflamed against 
the cruelty and injustice of their own government. 

Finding theii' churches closed, they met in arms on the 
green hill sides, and in lonely muirs, to hold what were 
termed field conventicles, where the oppression they en- 
dured for conscience sake, the recollection of their present 
danger, and the memory of their struggles made in years 
gone by, together with the grandeur of the solemn 
scenery by which they were surrounded, tilled their hearts 
with a splendid enthusiasm and with a purity of soul, as, 
with the sword by their sides, they worshipped God in 
those wild places, which, since the days of the Romans, 
had been the best stronghold of their forefathers. 

As a ballad (which I quote from memory) has it : — 

" Oh, sad and dreary was the lot of Scotland's true ones then, 
A famine-stricken remnant with scarce the guisp of men ; 
They burrowed few and lonely mid the chill dark mountain caves, 
For those who once had sheltered them were in their martyr- 
graves. 

"** A sword had rested on the land ! it did not pass away ; 
Long had they watched and waited ; but there dawned no brighter 

day, 
And many had gone back from them, who owned the truth of old, 
Because of much iniquity their love was waxen cold." 

To crush this growing enthusiasm (wHich was so great 



IHOMAS DALYELL, OF BINNS. 367 

at itfrnes, that an angel was more that once averred U 
hav«3 been seen in mid air, overhanging a conventicle) 
to suppress these armed religious meetings, and enforce 
Episcopacy on the people, was now the ungrateful task 
assigned to Dalyell, to Drummond, and the Scottish 
standing forces, who were all commanded by officers of 
liigh Cavalier principles, and were usually men without 
much scruple in obeying the orders of the king and 
council. 

Alarmed at the spirit of resistance evinced by the 
people, and remembering perhaps the fate of his fathei-, 
Chfctrifcs II. changed the Scottish ministry. Lauderdale 
Jiaa begun to persuade him that more lenient measures 
wei'O necessary, and Sharpe, whom the Covenanters re- 
ceived as a Judas, retired from the administration of 
ecclesiastical affairs ; but the change came too late, for 
again the banner which had been displayed so victori- 
ous'Y of old, " for an oppressed Kirk and broken Cove- • 
nanc,' was unfurled, and a body of the Presbyterians rose 
in i.rms. 

Lieutenant-colonel Sir James Turner, author of a little 
treatjse on the art of war, and of his own Memoirs, from 
wh.cA we may learn that he was a fierce and unscrupu- 
lous sahreur, was captured with his troops at Ayr, by 
the iiairds of Corsack and Barscob at the head of a few 
folio «vers. Another party of soldiers were routed by them 
at jl fairy, and these insurgents began at once their march 
for Edinburgh, the seat of government, in the autumn of 
1666. 

They first proposed to put Turner to death ; but spared 
his life on Corsack discovering that his conduct to the 
people had been much less severe than the written orderSy 
which were found on his person, had inculcated. 

Dalyell at this crisis commanded the king's troops in 
the capital. He concentrated all the detachments w hich 
weie dispersed throughout the adjacent country, and 
marcned westward, by the Glasgow road, to meet these 
insurgents, whose strength was ever varying, and whose 
numit/ers were greatly exaggerated. 

" A great many came to the rebels who were called 



368 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

'iVhiggs'' says Bishop Burnet ; " at Lanark, in Clydesdale^ 
ibey held a solemn fast day, in which, after much praying, 
tViey renewed the Covenant and set out their manifesto, 
in which they denied that they rose against the King, but 
complained of the oppressions under which they groaned ; 
vhey desired that Episcopacy might be put down, that the 
Covenant might be set up, their ministers restored to 
them ; and then they promised that they would be, in all 
other things, the king's most obedient sv-bjects.'' 

Such were the simple and just demands of these poor 
))eople. Daly ell followed them closely from place to 
Vlace with his cavalry, the flower of which were the high- 
jjpirited Scottish Life Guards. He published a proclama- 
iion, offering pardon to all who within twenty-four hours 
ijturned to their own houses ; but he tlireatened with 
death all who were taken in arms after that brief period. 
M-e found the whole country so completely in the interest 
ci the revolters, that he could obtain no intelligence of 
Jxieir number, intention, or movements, save the rumours 
Drought to head quarters by his own parties and horse- 
j-atrols ; and thus, while he was hovering in the west, by 
dt sudden march, they appeared unexpectedly within four 
voiles of Edinburgh. 

Their number had considerably augmented during their 
inarch ; but few men of any influence or property joined 
xnem ; as most of the Covenanting gentry had been com - 
mitted to various castles and prisons, on the plausible pre- 
text that it was necessary to insure their neutrality in 
case of a war with the Dutch. 

On reaching the vicinity of the Pentland Hills, they 
numbered about three thousand horse and foot, ill armed 
uud totally undisciplined. 

Colonel James Wallace, of Auchans, a descendant of 
the Wallaces of Dundonald, a brave ofiicer, who had served 
with distinction in former wars, and been lieutenant- 
colonel of Argyle's Highland regiment in Ireland — a 
veteran soldier, who had seen the battles of Benburb, 
^ilsvthe, and Dunbar, when he was lieutenant-colonel of 
fcAC b)Cottrsh Foot Guards* — took command of the whole, 

♦ Baised for Charles II. in 1650, and disbanded after Worcester, 



MAS DALYELL, OF BINNS. 3G9 

and, knowing liow slender was his force, how destitute of 
succour, and how desperate in purpose and position, he 
left nothing undone to ensure a victory, or at least a 
death that should avenge their defeat and fall. 

On reaching the secluded village of Colinton, which 
lies in a deep and wooded hollow, they learned that in 
Edinburgh, where they confidently expected a great 
accession, the citizens, under their provost, Sir Andrew 
E^imsay, were in arms against them, and had made 
vigorous preparations for a defence. The barrier gates 
were shut and fortified by cannon; the gentlemen of 
the neighbouring shires had been summoned to defend 
the walls; the College of Justice had formed a corps of 
cavalry, and all gentlemen in the city who possessed 
. horses were ordered to mount, and appear in arms in the 
Meal Market, under the young Marquis of Montrose, to 
await the orders of General Dalyell. 

The latter sent Alexander Seton, Viscount Kingston, 
with a body of the Guards, to the old quarries in Brunts- 
field Links, with orders to lie there concealed, as across 
these links lay the direct road to the quarters of the 
insurgents, who had many friends in the capital; but, 
overawed by the active measures of the Cavalier govern- 
ment, they — according to Kirkton — " could only fast and 
pray for them." 

On learning all this, Colonel Wallace marched along 
the slope of the Pentland Hills, in the hope of being able 
to effect a retreat towards Biggar. The season was the 
dreary month of November. Dogged by Dalyell and 
battered by a storm of wind and rain, the hapless Cove- 
nanters had been losing heart, and as their spirit dimi- 
nished, so did their numbers, which, from three thousand, 
dwindled down to nine hundred hungry, wet, and famished 
creatures, " who looked more like dying men than soldiers 
going to conquer." 

Wallace began to see the hopelessness of the cause he 
had undertaken ; but the spirit of the few who adhered to 
him never flinched. 

" We are not unwilling to die for religion and liberty,'* 
said these brave fellows; "}ea, we would esteem a testi* 



370 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

mony for the Lord and our country a sufficient reward 
for all our loss and labour." 

They wrote to General Dalyell a long and pathetic 
letter, setting forth their religious grievances; but ug 
answer was returned to it, save the sound of his trumpets 
and the clash of the kettle-drums, when, on the afternoon 
of the 28tli of November, his cavalry and infantry — 
upwards of three thousand strong, — after a fortnight's 
constant marching, were seen traversing the western slope 
of the beautiful Pentland range, and, descending, with all 
their standards displayed, towards Rullion Green, where 
these nine hundred devoted men, with their swords and 
Bibles, awaited them. As Dalyell approached, they sang 
the seventy-fourth and seventy- eighth Psalms. 

Wallace drew up his little band in line, with a few of 
his toil-worn horsemen covering the right flank, which 
was somewhat exposed. Desperation and religious en- 
thusiasm enhanced their natural bravery, and twice they 
repulsed the attack of the royal troops ; but it was renewed 
by Dalyell's hoi'se, the finest cavalry in Scotland, being 
principally cavaliers of the Life Guards, nobly mounted 
and richly accoutred. Dalyell led them on, and, by a 
single charge, they bore down horse and foot alike, at 
sword's point. This was when the dusk was closing on 
these lofty and heath-clad mountains. Fifty Covenanters 
were slain, including two eminent Irish divines — Andrew 
MacCormick and John Crookshanks — who had joined 
them, and who perished in the front rank. 

In this conflict Dalyell and the famous Covenanter, 
Captain John Paton, of Meadowhead, met hand to hand 
on horseback, and exchanged several blows before they 
were separated by the pressure of their soldiers. Paton 
then discharged his pistols at Dalyell, off whose person 
the balls were seen to recoil. On perceiving this (and 
knowing him to be shot-proof, according to a superstitious 
}iistorian), the captain loaded his pistol with a silver coin, 
a manoeuvre observed by Dalyell; he stepped behind a 
soldier, who fell, pierced by the coin which was supposed 
to be proof to any spell; but the same legend is related 
of Claveihousp at Killycrankie. Paton was among the 



THOMAS DALYELL, OF BINNS. 37i 

last wlio left the field. Dalyell perceived liim retiring, 
and sent three well-mounted troopers in pursuit, and those 
came to blows with him when he was urging his horse to 
leap a deep ditch. By a back-handed stroke he clove in 
two the head and helmet of his first assailant; the other 
two fell headlong into the ditch, where they lay struggling 
under their fallen chargers. 

" Take my compliments to Dalyell, your master," said 
Paton, tauntingly, as he rode off; "tell him that I am not 
going home with him to-night." 

John Nesbit, of Hardhill. a tall and powerful Cove- 
nanter, fell on the field, covered with wounds, but was 
found to be alive next day, when he was stripped and 
about to be interred with the dead. He was a brave 
man, and had served in foreign wars, for which he was 
made a captain of Musketeers at Bothwell some years after. 

The gloom of the November night, and a sentiment of 
cliivalry — of pity, perhaps, for their poor and persecuted 
countrymen — inspired the Life Guards to spare the fugi- 
tives, the mass of whom escaped and dispersed ; but eighty 
prisoners — among whom was Neilsoii, the unfortunate 
Laird of Coi-sack — were taken, and these were next day 
marched in triumph through the streets of Edinburgh^ 
while cannon thundered a salute from the castle, and the 
bells rang in every steeple; while the streets resounded 
with the tramp of the cavalry, who, with standards 
advanced and kettle-drums beating, escorted them to 
prison. " It is recorded that Andrew Murray, an aged 
Presbyterian minister, when he beheld the ferocious 
Dalyell in his rusted head-piece, bufi" coat, and long 
waving beard, riding at the head of his cavalier squadrons, 
who, flushed with victory, surrounded the manacled 
prisoners with drawn swords and cocked carbines — and 
when he heard the shouts of acclamation from the people, 
was so overpowered with grief for what he deemed the 
downfall for ever of GocFs Covenanted Kirh^ that he became 
UI, and expired." 

The dead were buried on the field, and there may yet 
be seen, within a small and rude enclosure, which is 
overshadowed by a few trees, a monument bearing ao 

B B 2 



372 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

inscription to the memory of Crookslianks, MacConnick, 
and others who lie where they fell. At the back of the 
Pentland Hills runs a rivulet named the Deadman's-grain, 
from the circumstance of a wounded Covenanter falling 
there when pursued by a cavalier trooper. Drawing a 
|)istol from his holsters, he fired it at his pursuer under- 
neath his bridle arm, but, missing, shot his own horse in 
the flank. The animal fell, and his rider was immediately 
slain, where his green grave is yet shown by the side of 
the mountain burn. 

At Easton, in Dunsyre, there was long visible a lOnely 
grave, in which, according to a tradition transmitted from 
father to son, there lay a Covenanter who had expired of 
wounds received at Kullion Green. It was opened in 
1817, and found to contain the skeleton of a tall man, 
with two silver coins dated 1620. On being touched, the 
bones crumbled to dust. 

Colonel Wallace, on seeing all lost, left the field, ac- 
companied by Mr. John Welsh, and, favoured by the 
darkness, took a north-westerly direction among the hills, 
and escaped. After long concealment and enduring many 
privations, he reached the Continent, and died in penury, 
at Rotterdam, in 1678. s 

It is a strange circumstance that, after the rout of his ] 
followers, many of them were slain by the Lothian | 
peasantry. 1 

Of the unfortunate prisoners, the servile and barbarous ' 
Scottish Privy Council made a severe example. Twenty 
were executed at Edinburgh, ten being hanged upon the 
same gibbet at once; seven were executed at Ayr, and 
many were hanged before their own doors in other parts 
of the country. The heads of those who perished at 
Edinburgh were fixed above the city gates, and their 
right arms and the hands with which they subscribed the ^ 
Covenant were aflixed to the Tolbooths of Lanark and ] 
other towns. j 

Wlien Gordon, of Knockbreck, and his brother were \ 
hanged on tlie same gibbet, tliey clasped each other in 
their arms, that together, and at once, they might endure 
the pangs of death. 



THOMAS DALYELL, Or niXNS. 373 

Like all Covenantei^, the whole of these men main- 
tained, with their dying breath, that they liad taken up 
arms not against the king, but against the insupportable 
tyranny of tlie Episcopal prelates. And that these men, 
and such as these, did not die in vain, the future history 
of their country has shown, for their last words left an 
echo that lingers yet in the hearts of the people. 

Dalyell was highly complimented by the Council for 
this victory, and Neilson of Corsack, the most important 
of his prisoners, was ordered to be tortured in that dark, 
panelled room under the Parliament Hall, wherein sat 
the Council, over which the Duke of Rothes presided. 

Neilson of Corsack was a country laird, who had been 
long distinguished for gentleness and amiability of dispo- 
sition ; but rage at the ill-treatment he received from the 
new clergy alone drove him to despair, and from despair 
to arms. On his refusal to become an Episcopalian, by 
the information (or at the instance) of the curate of his 
parish, he was dragged from his house, fined, and im- 
prisoned, while his delicate wife and little children had 
been driven as outcasts into the mountains. Soldiers were 
then quartered on his lands, and his cattle were carried 
off. This was scarcely such treatment f.s a Scottish 
gentleman of the seventeenth century would endure with 
calmness. Rendered desperate, Corsack took to his 
sword, and commanded the party which surprised Sir 
James Turner, whose life he subsequently saved. That 
officer was not ungrateful for the act, and did all in his 
power to obtain mercy for him, but in vain. The Council 
were inexorable, and " Corsack was so cruelly tortured by 
the iron boots, that his shrieks were sufficient to move the 
heart of a stone." 

The thumhikins Avere the favourite instrument of torture 
most generally resorted to by the Lords of Council. These 
were small steel screws Avhich compressed the thumb- 
joint, or whole hand if necessary, and were an invention 
brought to Scotland by General Dalyell from the Continent. 

Charles II. distinctly, by letter, ordained the Privy 
Council to substitute banishment for torture and death; 
but bis missive was concealed, and in his name the work 



374 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

of cruelty still went ou^ and still unsated by the daily 
horrors furnished by the result of the conflict at Rullion 
Green, Grenerals Dalyell and Drummond were ordered 
into the Shires of Ayr, Dumfries, and Galloway, to com« 
plete the destruction of any Covenanters or recusants who 
might remain in these districts. 

In this year, and most probably for that duty, he 
raised a regiment of infantry ; but it has long ceased to 
exist, and was probably one of the many Scottish corps 
disbanded at the peace of Ryswick. 

While on this new service the enemies of Dalyell record 
innumerable instances of cruelty perpetrated by him ; and 
though his temper was hot and his character undoubtedly 
fierce and resolute, these stories must be accepted under 
reservation. 

" The forces were ordered to lie in the west," says Bur- 
net, *' where Dalyell acted the Muscovite too grossly. He 
threatened to spit men and to roast them, and he killed 
some in cold blood, or rather hot blood, for he was then 
drunk, when he ordered one to be hanged because he 
would not tell where his father was, for whom he was 
in search. When he heard of any who did not go to 
church, he did not trouble himself to set a fine upon him, 
but sent as many soldiers as might eat him up in a night. 
And the clergy were so delighted with it, that they used 
to speak of that time as the poets do of the golden age. 
Thpy looked upon the soldiery as their patrons. They were 
ever in their company, and complying with them in their 
excesses, and, if they are not much wronged, they rather 
led them into them, than checked them for them. Dcdyell 
himself and his officers were so disgusted with them, that 
they increased the complaints, that had now more credit 
from them than from those of the country, who were 
looked on as their enemies. Things of so stmnge a pitch 
in vice were told of them, that they seemed scarce credible." 

And this severe picture of the Episcopal Clergy is 
given by a Scottish Bishop, which renders it the more 
worthy of credence. 

It is recorded of Dalyell, that once, when inflamed by 
Ijassion, he struck a prisoner on the face with the hilt of 



THOMAS DALYELL, OP EINNS. 873 

his dagger so severely that blood flowed from the wound 
but it must be remembered that this person had boldly 
taunted the fierce old man, as " a Muscovite beast who used 
to roast men alive 1" He established his head-quartera at 
Lanark for some weeks, and there he imprisoned many 
Covenanters in a damp dungeon, which was so narrow 
that, owing to their number, they could neither sit nor 
lie at length with comfort ; and where they were deprived 
of all accommodation for preserving cleanliness or decency. 

While his troops were in this town, a peasant when 
passing through the streets was seized by a patrol, 
and brought before him ; and because this man either 
could not, or would not, give such information as would 
commit some of the prisoners, he was condemned to in- 
stant death. He begged one night's reprieve, that he 
might prepare to die, and make his peace with Heaven ; 
but even this was denied him, and, according to the histo- 
rians of the Kirk, he was dragged into a neighbouring 
field, shot dead by a platoon of carbines, stripped and 
left nude upon the ground. 

On another occasion, we are told that he ordered a 
woman, who had aided the escape of a fugitive, to be cast 
into a hole filled with toads and reptiles, where she died 
in great misery. 

Such stories seem exceedingly improbable, yet they pas? 
current in Scotland, and are still believed to the present day. 

In Dumfries the soldiers were accused of " having tied 
a man neck and heels to a pole, and turned him like a joint 
of meat before a gi^eat fire." In Kilmarnock, the men of 
Dalyell's regiment placed an old recusant in a dungeon, 
which was destitute of vent or chimney, and there tor- 
tured him by the smoke of a coal fire. When almost suf- 
focated he was borne forth, amid laughter and derision, to 
the open air, and permitted to revive. After this he 
was imprisoned again ; and this torture was continued for 
several nights and days. 

At Dairy, Sir William Bannatyne, one of Dalyell's 
officers, ordered a woman who had been accessory to the 
escape of her husband, to be tortured by having lighted 
musket-matches tied between her clenched fiiagers, a 



376 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

cruelty by whicli she lost one hand entirely, and some 
days afterwards expired of torture. A farmer, whom this 
officer was dragooning, and from whom he was extorting 
money, asked why he was thus fined. 

" Because," replied Sir William, with provoking can- 
dour, " you have great gear, and I must have part of it." 

And on service so barbarous as this, the year 1 G67 passed 
away ; and the estates of the forfeited Wallace of Auchans 
and others were bestowed by Parliament upon Dalyell and 
Drummond, or were retained by the grasping officers of 
State to enrich themselves. Thus for a time the unhappy 
Covenanters seemed to be completely crushed. Upon 
Dalyell was conferred the valuable estate of Mure of 
Caldwell, who had been accessory to that revolt which 
terminated at the Pentland hills ; but of this property his 
family were deprived by the Eevolution of 1688. Those 
who made peace with the Government, by interest; 
bribery, or fines, received protections, of which the follow- 
ing, in my own possession, granted the year before Both- 
well, may serve as an example : — 

** At Glasgow, the twenty day of March, 1678. 
'•' For saemeikelas Major Alexander Coult of Garturke, 
in the parish of Monkland, hath signed the bond appoynted 
by the Lords of His Maties Privy Councell Sov himself 
and all such who live under him, ffor their peaceable and 
orderlie deportment ; the Comitty of His Maties Privy 
Councell do hereby take the said Major Alexander Coult 
under their special protection and safeguard : and hereby 
discharge all officers and souldiers to trouble or molest the 
said Major Alexander Coult, his house, famillie, tenants, 
cottars or servants, or any belonging to him, in their 
personal gudes or estate, as they will be answemble at 
their highest perill, and allows him to have and wear his 
wearing sword and pistoUs. Glencairne, 

" Strathmore, Wigtoune, 

" AiRLiE, Caithness." 

Captain John Creichton, the celebrated cavalier trooper, 
who served long, both as a private and officer, under Dal- 
yell in Scotland, and whose interesting memoirs were 



THOMAS DALYELL, OF BINNS. 377 

publislied by Dean Swift, has left us the following por- 
trait of his stern leader^ and it is so gi-aphic that I may- 
be pardoned quoting it entire. 

" He was bred up very hardy from his youth, both in diet 
and clothing. He never wore boots, nor above one coat, 
which was close to his body, with close sleeves like those 
we call jockey coats. He never wore a peruke, nor did he 
shave his beard since the murder of King Charles the First. 
In my time his head was bald, which he covered only with a 
beaver hat, the brim of which was not above three inches- 
broad. His beard was white and bushy, and yet reached 
down almost to his girdle. He usually went to London 
once or twice in a year to kiss the King's hand, who had 
a great esteem for his valor and worth. His unusual dress 
and figure, when he was in London, never failed to dra^y 
after him a great crowd of boys and other young people, 
Avho constantly attended at his lodgings, and followed him 
with huzzas, as he went to court and returned from it. As 
he was a man of humour, he w^ould always thank them 
for their civilities when he left them at the door to go to 
the King, and would let them know exactly at what hour 
he intend-ed to come out again and return to his lodgings. 

" When the King walked in the park attended by some 
of his courtiers, and Dalziel in his company, the same 
crowds would always be after him, shewing their admira- 
tion at his beard and dress, so that the King could hardly 
pass on for the crowd, upon which his Majesty bade Hhe 
devil take Dalziel for bringing such a rabble of boys toge- 
tJier to Imve their guts squeezed out,' while they gaped at 
his long beard and antique habit, requesting him at the 
same time — as Dalziel used to express it — ' to shave and 
dress like other Christians, and keep the poor bairns out of 
danger.' All this could never prevail on him to part with 
his beard ; but yet, in compliance to his Majesty, he went^ 
once to Court in the very height of the fashion ; but as 
soon as the King and those about him had laughed suffi- 
ciently at the strange figure he made, he resumed his usual 
habit, to the great joy of the boys, who had not discovered 
him in his fashionable dress." 

From this it would appear that Dalyell had been mucls 



^78 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

of a wag, that he loved to humour children, and enjoyed 
their fun and amazement at the sight of his huge beard, 
and by appearing once in the gaudy frippery of a Cavalier 
had striven to ridicule the foppery of the Court of 
•Charles IT. — ^three points of character very different from 
those usually attributed to him. 

He was appointed a Privy Councillor, and soon after 
represented the county of Linlithgow in Parliament, and 
in 1G70 an act of ratification, confirming all his estates 
iind. honours, was passed. In this document he is desig- 
nated " His Majesties right trustie and weel-beloved 
Generall Thomas Daly ell, of Binns, late Lieutenant- 
Generall of His Majesties late forces within this ancient 
kingdome." From this it would appear that promotion, 
as well as profit, had resulted to him after the affair at 
Rullion Green and dragooning the Westland Whigs. He 
represented his native county in the Scottish Parliament 
from 1678 to 1685. 

To assiPit in the security of Episcopacy in Scotland, and 
still further to fortify the royal authority and the power 
of that tyrannical Council, which committed so many 
atrocities in the king's name, Lauderdale, who was created 
a doko when at the head of the Scottish affaii-s, obtained 
the formation of a militia consisting of two thousand 
-cavalry and sixteen thousand infantry ; and as the northern 
kingdom swarmed with experienced and high-spirited 
officer/} all lacking military employment, these troops were 
-soon disciplined and equipped; but the flower of the 
national troops were the standing forces of the country. 

These, at this time, were as follows: — 

}. The Royal Life Guards, the regiment of the famous 
Jol-.n Grahame of Claverhouse, Viscount of Dundee, were 
raided after the Restoration, in 1661. The privates were 
styled, par excellence, gentlemen, and usually appear to 
have been cadets of good families. The Sieur de la 
Roche, a French Protestant refugee, who was slain in a 
tavern brawl at Leith by John Master of Tarbet and an 
Ensign Mowat, is styled in their indictment, " a gentle- 
man of his Majesty's troop of Guards." Under Claver- 
house, this Scottish patrician band served at BothweM 



THOMAS UALYELL, OF BIXNS. 379 

Bridge^ at Drumclog, and in all the unhappy contentions^ 
of the period. Mr. Francis Stuart, afterwards a captain 
of the Guards, grandson of the Earl of Both well, was, 
says Captain Creichton, " a private gentleman in the 
Horse Guards, like myself." In this trooper the reader 
will no doubt recognise the Serjeant Bothwell of Old 
Mortality. 

"On the 2nd of April, 1661," according to Wodrow, 
" the King's Life Guard was formed. By theii' constitu- 
tion they were to consist of noblemen and gentlemen's 
sons, and were to be one hundred and twenty in number, 
under command of the Lord Newburgh. After taking 
an oath to be loyal to his Majesty, they made a parade 
through the town of Edinburgh, with carbines at their 
saddles and swords drawn." 

The maimed and old veteran officers, adds Kirkton, in 
his secret history, "the poor colonels, majors, and cap- 
tains who expected great promotion (at the Restoration) 
were preferred to be troopers in the King's troop of Life 
Guards. This goodly employment obliged them to spend 
with one another the small remnant of the stock their 
miseries had left them, but more they could not have after 
all their hopes and sufferings" (he means) during the days 
f)f Cromwell. 

In 1674 these Life Guards consisted of four squadrons, 
and were commanded by the Marquis of Athole. 

After the Union, in 1707, this corps was removed to 
London, and is now represented by the 2nd troop of the 
1st Life Guards.* 

2. The Scottish Foot Guards, liaised in November, 1660, 
were commanded by George, Earl of Linlithgow, and 
were, as they are still, named Fusiliers, being armed with 
the fusil, a light French musket; and by the Scottish 
Privy Council, in their orders to the army in 1667, it was 
wdained that the field officers of this corps should com- 
mand in chief, and give orders in field and garrison, to all 
iroops whatsoever. In 1707 these Guards were placed 
upon the united British establishment j in February, 1712, 

• War-ofEce cc'"*nunicated. 



380 THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

they were marched to London; in the following year they 
shared the duties for the first time with the English 
Guards, and have never been in Scotland since* 

3. The Royal Regiment, known of old as the Scottish 
Archers in France, was at this time abroad at Tangiers, 
and did not return until 1682, when it arr.ved in 
Rochester, reduced to sixteen cooipauies, and after the 
battle of Sedgemoor was sent into Holland. 

4. The Earl of Mar's regiment, which served at Both- 
well Bridge, was remodelled in 1689, and now known as 
the 21st Fusiliers. 

5. The infantry regiment of Daly ell is no longer in 
existence, but Leven's Scottish regiment is now known as 
the 2oth, or Royal Borderers; Angus's Foot — the regiment 
of our old friend, Uncle Toby — is numbered as the 26th, 
or Cameronians; and the regiment of Argyle, infamous 
as the perpetrators of the Glencoe tragedy, is no longer in 
the service. 

6. The Scottish train of artillery, commanded by the 
Laird of Lundin in 1687, was disbanded at the Union, 
when Lord Leven was its general, and the last survivor 
of it, then an old man, served as a volunteer, with Sir 
John Cope's army, at Preston Pans. In this corps was a 
strange rank, named '• gentlemen of the cannon," as we 
may learn from a letter of Viscount Teviot, dated 1699, 
and printed among Carstare's State Papers. 

At the union with Enghxnd, in 1707, it would seem to 
have been arranged that Scotland should have the first 
regiment of infantry, theirs being the oldest, and that 
England should have the first regiment of Dragoons. 

The severity with which Dalyell and Drummond treated 
the Covenanters with these regular troops drove them 
frantic. 

In February, 1677, the former despatched John 
Creichton, one of his most active, favourite, and relentless 

* The Royal Horse Guards of Scotland were raised at Edinburgh 
in 1702. The Duke of Argyle, who came over in 1688, was their 
first colonel. Lord Polwarth's Horse (now the 7th Hussars) then 
the only Scottish regiment of Light Dragoons, were embodied in 
1689. 



THOMAS DALYELL, OF BINNS. 381 

tioopers, with an ensign and fifty soldiers of the Foot 
Guards, to seize Adam Stobie, of LuscaTj near Cuh^oss, in 
Fife, " a fellow who," as the captain says, " had gone 
through the west, endeavouring to stir up sedition in the 
people by his great skill in canting and praying." 

After surrounding his house in the night, the unfor- 
tunate Covenanter was discovered in concealment under 
some straw in a lime-kiln, from w^hence he was at once 
dragged forth. His daughter, in tears and terror, besought 
mercy of Creichton, and offered to ransom her father for 
two hundred dollars ; but the trooper knew too well the in- 
flexibility of his general, and, though not always insensible 
either to the voice of a woman or the offer of a handsome 
sum, he marched back to Edinburgh, and presented 
Stobie to Dalyell, together with four other recusants, 
who had been found in Cuh'oss by the Ensign of the 
Guards. 

On the 22nd of Februaiy, the General brought his 
prisoners before the Privy Council, who fined Stobie 
thiee thousand marks for keeping conventicles and con- 
versing with interconimuned persons. After paying this 
he was to be transported; but he saved their lordships 
further trouble on his account by breaking from his 
prison and escaping in the night. After this he joined 
in the next rising, and is believed to have been slain at 
Both well Bridge, as he was never heard of afterwards. 

About this time Francis Stuart, the Earl of Both well's 
grandson, was recommended by Dalyell to Charles II. for 
a commission, and was appointed Captain of Horee with 
John Creichton, who had hitherto been with him in the 
Life Guards, as his lieutenant, and these officers served 
under Colonel Graham, of Claverhouse, at the battle of 
Drumclog; for after the murder of Archbishop Sharpe on 
Magus Muir, the armed field conventicles had increased 
in every paii; of the country, and discontent, with sullen 
desperation, were rapidly moulding the people into a mass 
that was ready for revolt. Conflicts with the soldiei^ 
were of daily occurrence, and many of them were bar- 
barously murdered, in lonely billets and solitary parts oi 
the country, by the more savage or fanatical of the hill 



382 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

men, as tlie recusants were named, from their liabit of 
usually lurking in the mountains. 

Superstition was not wanting to lend a darker and more 
ten-ible hue to the events of the time, as Scotland is 
peculiarly the land of omens. Atmospheric visions wero 
everywhere visible, if we are to believe such old memo- 
rialists as Law and others. 

At Kilbryde, near Glasgow, two armies were seen in 
the sky, firing platoons of musketry at each other ; *•' the 
fyre and smock were seen, but without noise or crak." 
On the slope of a lonely hill near Eastwood Muir, the tall 
apparition of a blood-red spectre was seen to tower sud- 
denly between the terrified beholders and the blue sky, 
while a di-eadful voice exclaimed — 

" Woe ! Woe unto the land !" 

At a conventicle, suppressed in Fife by Adam Mas- 
tertou of Grange, an officer of the Life Guards, the fugi- 
tive women, who observed the conflict from a distance, 
asserted that they could perceive, to their awe and terror, 
"the form of a tall man of majestic stature," hovering in 
mid air " above the people all the while of the soldiers 
shooting." 

In Aiigust, 1678, the devil, who seemed always in those 
days to take a deep interest in Scottish affairs, held a great 
meeting of witches and warlocks in Lothian, "where," 
saith the veracious Law, " there was a warlock who for- 
merly had been admitted to the ministry in the Pres- 
byterian times, and who, when the bishops came in, con- 
formed with tliem; but being deposed, he now tm-ns under 
the devil, a preacher of hellish doctrine." In the March 
of the same year, he adds, a tr> mendous voice was heard 
in the ancient and half-ruin ^-d Abbey of Paisley, ex- 
claiming — 

" Woe, woe, woe ! Pray, pray, pray 1" 

Showers of blood and of Highland bonnets, afforded 
the crones, elsewhere, ample matter for discussion and 
wonder. 

Amid all this absurdity, while the tyi-ant Lords of 
Council tortured and hung peasants anc preachers, o! 
ruined honourable and long-descended families, for wor* 



THOMAS DALYELL, OF BINNS. 383^ 

shipping God as their hearts desired, and for doing so, iu 
wild and sequestered places, or lor refusing to say God 
save a King, who was uncovenanted ; while Dalyell had 
every satanic power attributed to him, and the black 
charger of Claverhouse was believed to be the veritable 
devil himself, the efforts of some to promote godliness in 
the land were alike melancholy and amusing; thus people 
were punished for taking snuff in time of sermon, for 
caiTying water on the Sabbath day, and for a thousand 
charges equally frivolous. 

To repress the conventicles w.^ ich began to assume a 
more formidable aspect, from the number of armed men 
who attended them, additional garrisons were established. 
Two peers and ten barons, who were obnoxious to Lau- 
derdale, were lawlessly dispossessed of their mansions, 
which were converted into military stations. In each of 
these Dalyell placed a company of infantry and ten 
troopers, who were supplied with everything by provin- 
cial assessment or military contribution. Fathers were 
made responsible for their children ; husbands for their 
wives ; magistrates for their citizens ; landlords for tlieir 
tenants ; and thus, by a network of military tyranny, it 
was resolved that at the sword's point, Scotland should 
become a highly episcopal country. Five hundred marks 
were offered for the seizure of any one who held a reli- 
gious meeting; and four thousand pounds sterling was 
an ordinary price for the head of a good preacher. Others 
were valued according to their reputation among the 
people j and under such laws as these the troops of his 
sacred Majesty King Charles made plenty of prize-money 
and plunder. 

The barbarities to which the people were subjected at 
last attracted the attention of the English House of Com- 
mons, who appointed a committee to inquire into these 
affairs, and into the Act empowering the Privy Council at 
Edinburgh to march the Scottish army wheresoever they 
chose ; but there the matter ended. The Government 
w^as thQn federal, and any interference might have caussed 
another national rupture. 

Housed at last to more open resistance, a body of thes» 



384 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

poor people appealed again to that which of old was ever 
the Scotsman's best and most ready argument — the sword 
. — and the defeat of Claverhouse's cavalry at Drum clog was 
deemed a sure omen of great events to come. They esta- 
blished their camp at Hamilton, and unfurled a standard, 
which is still preserved at Edinburgh. It is blue, crossed 
by the white saltire of St. Andrew, and is inscribed — 

" COVENANTS RELIGION KING AND KINGDOMES." 

Kobert Hamilton, of Preston, a brave but intolerant 
and injudicious man, assumed the command. He was 
without experience as a deader, and his followers were des- 
titute of all discipline as soldiers ; hence dissensions were 
of hourly occurrence in the camp. 

Alarmed by the tidings of this rising, the end of which 
no one could then foresee, the King sent his son James, 
Duke of Monmouth and Buccleugh, to as.«ume command 
of the Scottish troops, and enforce the restoration of order. 
The duke brought with him four troops of English horse, 
commanded by a Major Main, a novelty which did not 
increase his popularity in Scotland, where English troops 
had not been seen since Cromwell's time. At the head of 
ten thousand men, with a fine park of artillery, he marched 
westward at midsummer, against the insurgents. 

" Upon the duke being made commander-in-chief, 
Dalyell refused to serve under him," says Captain Creich- 
ton, "and remained at his lodgings in Edinburgh, till his 
Grace was superseded, which happened about a fortnight 
after." 

The principal ofl&cers in the kingdom attended the 
duke on this expedition. Among them were tlie Earl of 
Linlithgow, with his regiment of Foot Guards ; the Earl 
of Mar, with his regiment of Fusiliers : the Marquis of 
Montrose, the Earls of Airley and Home, and Graham of 
Claverhouse, all commanders of horse ; while a host of 
cavalier nobles and gentlemen attended him to serve as he 
might require. 

On the 22nd of June, he found the Covenanters in 
position at the bridge of Both well, where the Clyde is 
seventy-one yards wide. This picturesque old bridge was 
twelve feet broad, and one hundred and twenty feet long, 



THOMAS DALYELL, OF BINNS. 385 

with a rise of twenty in the centre, where there was a 
barrier gate, which was removed in 1826. This gate 
Preston had barricaded, while flanking the approaches 
with musketry. To three hundred stout hearts led by 
Hackston of Kathillet, and the stern John Balfour of 
Kinloch, otherwise styled of Burley, was confided the 
keeping of the bridge, and well these brave men kept it 
too, under a heavy fire of cannon and musketry, to which 
the flankers of the bridge replied by firing briskly from 
behind the thickets of alder and hazel trees which clothed 
the banks of the stream. 

Under cover of a cannonade, Lord Livingstone led the 
assault, at the head of his father's regiment, the Scottish 
Foot Guards, and despite its barricade of stones and 
timber, and all the efibrts of its desperate defenders, the 
gate was stormed by the infantry, and the bridge was carried 
by the clubbed musket and levelled pike, after a fierce 
contest. Then a body of the Lennox Highlanders, led, 
say some authorities, by General Daly ell ; by their own 
chief, Macfarlane, say others, raised the war-cry of LocU- 
sloy and flung themselves, claymore in hand, on the main 
body of the Covenanters, while Claverhouse with the 
Life Guards — all burning to avenge their recent defeat at 
Drum clog — defiled across the bridge at full speed, and 
forming in squadron on the opposite side, swept all 
before them, as they might have driven a flock of sheep. 
Main's English dragoons and the Highlanders are accused 
of behaving with great barbarity in slaughtering the fugi- 
tives. The aged Laird of Earlstone prayed for quarter 
from Major Main, who ran him through the body and 
slew him on the spot. 

When the charge was over, the gentlemen of the Scot- 
tish Life Guards became so exasperated on seeing the 
Covenanters treated thus by Englishmen, that they fell, 
sword in hand, upon Main's dragoons, and cut many of 
tliem down, " being grieved," as the Rev. John Black- 
adder has it, '' to see Englishmen delighting so much to 
ehed their countrymen's blood." 

In the streets of Hamilton the reckless Balfour of 
Burley made a bold attempt to i-ally the fugitives ; but 
CO 



386 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

a musket-ball broke his sword arm, as liis troopers reined 
up their horses in the thoroughfare. 

"Withered be the hand that fired the shot — I can 
fight no longer now !" he exclaimed in bitterness, as the 
weapon fell from his grasp, and once more the flight was 
renewed. 

Four hundred Covenanters were slain on the field, and 
twelve hundred were made prisoners ; these, ou the even- 
ing after the battle, were marched to Edinburgh, where 
they were thrust into the Grey friars churchyard, like 
sheep penned in a fold. Some were selected for the scaf- 
fold, the rest were banished to the plantations, and of 
these many perished miserably at sea. 

The pursuit was scarcely over and the troops returned 
to their various colours, when old General Daly ell, on 
horseback and in fiery haste, lest the fighting should all 
be over, arrived from Edinburgh, with a new commis- 
sion appointing him commander-in-chief This document, 
which he had received by express from London, was dated 
22nd June, 1679, the very day of the encounter. It did 
not, however, entirely supersede the authority of the Duke 
of Monmouth, who by the Privy Council was styled 
** Lord General." Daly ell is said to have publicly up- 
braided the gentle duke with his clemency to the pri- 
soners, and for the tenor of the orders he issued before 
the battle. These were, to yield quarter to all who asked 
it, to make as many prisoners as possible, and to spare 
life. 

" Had mi/ commission come before the battle," said 
Dalyell, grimly, "these rogues should never moro have 
troubled the king or country." 

He marched the troops to Glasgow, and three days 
afterwards — the insurrection being deemed at an end— 
they were dispersed in detachments throughout the Low- 
lands, most of them being sent to where they were far 
from welcome — their old quarters. 

After the battle, Dalyell captured the Reverend John 
King, a preacher who had once been chaplain to the 
exiled Lord Cardross. This gentleman he sent in irons to 
Edinburgh, escorted by a guard of Main's dragoons, and 



THOMAS DALYELL, OF BINNS. 387 

on their march from Glasgow there occurred a strange 
accident, whicli the people believed to be a visitation of 
Heaven. One of these troopers, at a wayside alehouse, 
drank, " Confusion to the Covenant !" and being asked 
"where he was going," 

" I am carrying King to hell," said he, an answer likely 
enough to be made by a reckless soldier. 

"The judgment of Heaven did not linger on this 
wretch," records the superstitious Wodrow ; " he had not 
proceeded many paces on his journey, when his horse 
stumbled, his carbine went off and shot him dead." 

King perished on the gibbet soon after, and had his 
head and right hand cut off. 

In the winter after the battle, Daly ell quartered himself 
at Kilmarnock, with one battalion of Linlithgow's Foot 
Guards, and the horse troops of the Earl of Airlie and 
Captain Francis Stuart of Both well. 

" Here," says Captain Creichton, " the general, one day 
happening to look on while I was exercising the troop of 
dragoons, asked me when I had done, whether I knew 
any one of my men who was skilful in praying well in the 
style and tone of the Covenanters ? I immediately thought 
upon one named James Gibb, who had been born in Ire- 
land, and whom I had made a dragoon. This man I 
brought to the general, assuring his Excellency ' that if I 
had raked hell, T could not find his match in mimicking 
the Covenanters.' Whereupon the general gave him five 
pounds to buy him a greatcoat and a bonnet, and com- 
manded him to find out the rebels, but be sure to take 
care of himself among them. 

" The dragoon went eight miles oJBf that very night, and 
got admittance into the house of a notorious rebel, pre- 
tending he had come from Ireland out of zeal for the 
cause, to assist at the fight of Bothwell Bridge, and could 
not find an opportunity since of returning with safety; 
and therefore, after bewitching the family with his gifts 
of praying, he was conveyed in the dusk of the evening by 
a guide to the house of the next adjoining rebel, and thus 
in the same manner from one to another, till in a month's 
time he got through the principal of them in the west, 
oo2 



•388 THE CAVALIERS OF FOETUNE. 

telling the general at his return, that he ' made the old 
wives, in their devout fits, tear off their biggonets and 
mutches ;' he likewise gave the general a list of their 
Jiames and places of abode, and into the bargain brought 
back a good purse of money in his pocket." 

'* How used you to pray among them?" asked Dalyell. 

" It was my custom in my prayers," replied the trooper, 
**to send the king, the ministers of state, the officers of 
the army, with all their soldiers and the episcopal clergy, 
all at one broadside to hell ; but particularly our general 
liimself." 

" What," exclaimed the general, " did you also send me 
to hell, sir 1" 

"Yea," replied the unabashed dragoon, "you at the 
liead of them as their leader." 

This discreditable abuse of hospitality and breach of 
faith in the soldier is recorded as a piece of admirable tact 
.and strategy by Creichton, and doubtless Dalyell would 
•make good use of the notes supplied to him. 

In the month of July, in the following year, 1G80, 
Dalyell sent Creichton with thirty of Airlie's horse, and 
Jfifty of Strachan's dragoons, under Captain Bruce of Earls- 
hall, to capture or kill a hundred and fifty Covenanters, 
^vho, since the fight at Bothwell, had been lurking in the 
wilds of Galloway. These unfortunates, after being 
tracked from place to place by Bruce and Creichton, made 
^ stand against tliem at Airsmoss, near Muirkirk, on the 
:22nd July, and there these desperate men fought as only 
the homeless and the outlawed, the brave and the fore- 
<loomed, can fight ; but they were routed, and fourteen of 
"them were taken prisoners. Among these was David 
Ilackston, of Bathillet, who had been present at the 
murder of the Archbishop of St. Andrews. Sixty were 
«]ain, and one of these was Richard Cameron, a preacher, 
and formerly a schoolmaster at Falkland, for whose capture 
iive thousand marks had long been offered by the govern- 
ment at Edinburgh. 

" Lord !" he exclaimed, before the cavalry charged ; 
*** Lord, spare the green and take the ripe ! Come on," he 
added, drawing his sword, " let us fight it out to the last. 



THOMA.S DALYELL, OF BINNS. 389 

This is the day I longed for ! This is the death I have 
prayed for; to die fighting against the avowed enemies of 
the Lord." 

He was shot and buried in the moss, where his grave is; 
still shown ; but his head and hands were conveyed by 
Creichton to head-quarters. So perished this enthusiast ; 
but he bequeathed his name to a sect from which the 2Gtlr 
Scottish Regiment of the Line still takes its title of tlie 
Cameronians. 

With a barbarity worthy of the Sepoy mutineers hi» 
head and hands were exhibited to his aged father, then a 
prisoner in the gloomy Tolbooth of Edinburgh, and taunt- 
ingly he was asked, if he knew to whom they had be- 
longed. 

" Oh yes/' said the old man, as he wept and kissed the 
bloody relics ; " they are my son's — my dear son's — but 
good is the will of the Lord !" 

After this revolting incident, they were fixed to the 
Netherbow-porte, the eastern gate of Edinburgh. 

Captains Bruce and Creichton had also brought witlt 
them from Airsmoss the Laird of Rathillet, who had re- 
ceived many wounds in the skirmish. He was personally 
questioned by Dalyell, who is said to have threatened to- 
roast him, because his answers to certain queries were 
brief, sullen, and unsatisfactory. Covenanting writers add^ 
that the general refused to permit Hackston's wounds to 
be dressed, and ordered him to be chained to the floor of 
his dungeon till he was conveyed to Edinburgh, where he- 
was executed by prolonged tortures with a barbarity that:- 
had never been equalled, even in those days. 

Among others seized by Dalyell was John Spreul, an 
apothecary in Glasgow, whom he brought before the 
Council, and accused of being concerned in the fight at 
Bothwell. His leg was put in the iron boot, and at each- 
query the headsman gave the wedges five strokes with a. 
mallet. " Dalyell," says Wodrow, " complained that he- 
did not strike strongly enough ; upon which, he (the tor- 
turer) ofiered himself the mallet, saying he struck with alF 
his might." Spreul was afterwards imprisoned on the Bass 
Eock, where he remained for six years. 



390 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

Amid the many instances of severity attributed to 
Dalyell, I must not omit to record one of a different kind. 

The most celebrated prisoner taken at Bothwell was 
Captain John Paton, of Meadowhead, who served under 
Gustavus Adolphus, and had fought at Kilsythe against 
Montrose, where he had displayed remarkable bravery and 
skill in the use of his sword. Dalyell was present when 
this fine old veteran was examined before the Privy Coun- 
cil. On this occasion a soldier had the rudeness to taunt 
him with being " a rebel." 

*• Sir," retorted Paton, " I have done more for the King 
perhaps than you have done — I fought for him at 
Worcester." 

Some humane impression or soldierly emotion stirred 
the heart of Dalyell at these words. 

" Yes, John, you are right — that is true," said he : and 
striking the soldier with his cane, added, " I will teach 
you, sirrah, other manners, than to abuse a prisoner such 
as this." He then expressed sorrow for Paton's situation, 
and said he would have set him at liberty had his actions 
not been subject to the control of others ; " but," he 
added, " I will yet write to the King, and crave at least 
your life." 

" I thank you," replied the unmoved Covenanter ; " but 
you will not be heard." 

It is said that he obtained a reprieve for Paton, but 
was unable to save his life ; for though willing to take the 
test, the Captain was hanged, by sentence of a quorum of 
the Council, in the Grassmarket, on the 9th May. In 
August, 1853, a monument to his memory was erected in 
the churchyard of Ayr. 

Undaunted by all that had passed and was still passing 
around him, in the September of that year, Donald Car- 
gill, one of the most determined preachers of the Cove- 
nant, and one who had long escaped the fangs of the 
Council, held a conventicle in the Torwood, near Stirling, 
and with all solemnity and bitterness excommunicated 
the King, the Dukes of York, Monmouth, and Lauder- 
dale, General Dalyell and others, an act of daring which, 
at such a time, made a deep impression on the Government; 



THOMAS DALYELL, OF BINNS. 39 i 

but in the following year lie paid for his enthusiasm by 
the forfeit of his life, being captured by General Dalyell, 
and executed by the authorities. 

Tyranny and local raisgovernraent had now rendered 
the condition of poor Scotland sad beyond description. 

Through tlie lonely mosses, the pathless moors, and 
pastoral mountain districts of their native land, the un- 
happy Covenanters were hunted like beasts of prey, with- 
out a refuge or a resting place but such as Heaven accords 
to wild animals ; and wherever found, captivity or death 
was the penalty. During twenty-eight years of this 
military ptersecution, it has been calculated that eighteen 
thousand persons suffered death in the field, or by the ut- 
most extremities of torture that the Council could inflict; 
seventeen hundred were banished to the plantations, and 
two hundred perished on the scaffold alone ; seven thou- 
sand are said to have fled to foreign countries, and four 
hundred and ninety-eight were slain in cold blood, or in 
casual encounters ; and all this was done in the name of 
God, of Religion, and Law ! 

In September, 1679, there was a stormy debate in 
the Scottish Privy Council. By an act of indemnity, 
his Majesty pardoned all who had been at Both well 
Bridge, ministers and lesser barons excepted, provided 
they appeared before such persons as the Council should 
appoint, and signed a bond that never again would they 
rise in arms against the government. It may readily be 
believed that very few gave this promise; and from the 
minutes it would appear that Dalyell and Sir George 
Mackenzie of Rosehaugh, urged that all who had not done 
so should be proceeded against as rebels. The President 
and others pled that to proceed to further extremities 
would be cruel, as more than four thousand pei'sons, many 
of whom might be sick or ignorant of the King's letter, 
were involved in the measure proposed, and ultimately 
Dalyell, and those who adhered to him, agr*eed that the 
&ing should once more be addressed on the subject. 
The next entry connected with the General runs thus :— 
November 6, 1679. "At Privy Council there is a letter 
read from his Majesty, nominating Lieutenant- General 



392 THE CAA'ALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

Dalziel commander-in-chief of all the forces of Scotland, 
with power to him to act as he shall think fit, and only bs 
liable and accoimtableand jndgeable by his Majesty himself; 
for Dalziel wonldnot accept of it othei-Avays ; only he pro- 
mised and declared, that in difficult exigents he should take 
the advice of his Majesty's Privy Council." {Fountainhall, 
vol. i.) On the 3rd June, 1680, the Council received a, 
letter from Charles on this subject. It declared that when 
he gifted forfeitures, he always reserved for his own use 
the houses standing on the forfeited lands. He also gave 
Dalyell a Commission of Justiciary, with the advice of 
nine others, to execute justice on all who were in arms 
at Bothwell, or failed to take the bond within the period 
stated, since the 1st of January. 

In 1680, the Duke of York and Albany arrived in 
Edinburgh, to supersede Lauderdale, and took up his resi- 
dence at Ilolyrood. Dalyell received him at the head of 
the troops and a body of armed citizens, consisting of 
sixty men chosen from the sixteen companies of the 
Trained Bands which lined the streets. After his arrival, 
he and his Duchess, INIarie d'Este of Modena, so celebrated 
for her beauty, left nothing undone to ingratiate them- 
selves w^ith the Scottish people, to the end that, if ex- 
cluded by the Act of Succession from the English throne, 
they might for themselves secure the ancient crown of 
Scotland. Everything was studied, done, and adopted to 
ensure popularity ; and one fact is certain, that after 
the Duke's arrival the persecution of the Covenanters 
was much less severe than before. B}^ ostentatious pa- 
geants, he revived in the nation what it was even then 
beginning to forget, the memory of its regal independence 
and the pride of better days; and thus he sought to make 
his family less abhorred in the hearts of the people. He 
projected many improvements at Edinburgh. Among 
othei-s, the plan for building a bridge across the North 
Loch, and having a new town built upon the northern ridge; 
and the Holyrood parties, where tea was seen for the first 
time in Scotland, the balls and masques of the Ladies Anne, 
afterwards of Denmark, and Mary, afterwards of Orange, 
were long the theme of aged demoiselles and stately dow- 



THOMAS DALYELL, OF BINXS. 395 

agers in Edinbnrgli, where the beauty and charming 
suavity of the young princesses, with their natural gaiety, 
brightened the gloomy towers and tapestried rooms of the 
ancient palace : and the memory of these things was 
transmitted by many a mother and grandmother to their 
little ones, when the last of that old royal race was far 
away in hopeless exile and obscurity, and the first grass of 
spring was sprouting on the graves of Culloden. 

The Duke of York and his Duchess are said to have 
been warned of the lofty spirit and haughty punctilio of 
the old Scottish aristocracy from a speech of General 
Dalyell. 

James had invited this stern and bearded cavalier to 
dine with them at Holyrood soon after his arrival ; but 
the Duchess Mary, as a daughter of the ducal Prince of 
Modena, seemed to consider it somewhat derogatory to 
her rank to sit with a subject at table, and declined to 
take her place. 

'•' Madam," said the old veteran, " I have dined at a 
table where your father must have stood at my back." 

In this instance it is supposed that he alluded to the 
board of the Emperor of Germany, whom the Duke of 
INIodena, if summoned, must have attended as an officer 
of the household. Abashed by the firm retort of this 
grim old man, the haughty princess at once took her seat, 
and from thenceforward she and her husband resolved, in 
their intercourse with the Scottish noblesse, to exercise 
all the suavity and aiFability they could command. By va- 
rious acts of leniency the Duke also sought to win favour. 

" General Dalyell," says old Lord Fountainhall in his^ 
Diary, " having caused to be condemned by court martial 
a sentinel who had been found sleeping at one of the gates 
of the Abbey, the Duke caused him to be remitted and 
forgiven all punishment." 

In this year, soon after the Duke's arrival, the service* 
of the General were required to repress a dangerous de- 
monstration among the students of the Edinburgh Uni- 
versity. Being deeply imbued with the sentiments of the 
Covenanters, on Christmas Day, 1680, these young men 
resolved to manifest publicly their horror of all i^relacy^ 



394 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

by burning an effigy of the Pope, a ceremony eminently 
calculated to offend the royal Duke, as a zealous Catholic; 
and the magistrates, having resolved at all hazards to pre- 
vent this impolitic display, immediately communicated 
\vith General Dalyell, that he might have the troops in 
readiness to overawe the city. In furtherance of their 
daring scheme, the students posted on all the gates and 
public places of Edinburgh the following curious pla- 
card : — 

''an advertisement. 

" These are to give notice to all noblemen, gentlemen, 
and citizens, that we, the students in the Royal College of 
Edinburgh (to show our detestation and abhorrence of the 
Komish religion, and our zeal and fervency for the Pro- 
testant), do resolve to burn the effigies of Antichrist, the 
Pope of Borne, at the Mercat-cross of Edinburgh, at twelve 
o'clock in the forenoon — being the festival of our Saviour's 
nativity. And since we hate tumults as we do superstition, 
-sve do hereby, under pain of death, discharge all plun- 
derers, robbers, thieves, whores, and bawds to come within 
forty paces of our company, and such as shall be found 
disobedient to these our commands, sihi caveant. 

" By our special command, Robert Brown, Secretary 
to all our Theatrical and Extra-Literal Divertisements." 

By an oath, the students bound themselves to stand by 
each other, under a penalty, and employed a carver in 
wood to make them an effigy of his Holiness, "with 
clothes, triple crown, keys, and other necessary habili- 
ments." 

The Lord Provost, Sir James Dick, reported their in- 
tentions to the Duke of York, and threatened that " he 
would make it a bloody Christmas for them ;" while 
Dalyt 11 marched all the troops from Leith into the Canon- 
gate. The Grassmarket, an old quaint street lying to the 
south of the Castle rock, was filled with troops, whose 
patrols scoured all the wynds and closes, as the narrow 
alleys of the ancient city are named. The militia, or 
trained bands of Edinburgh, occupied the High-street j 
guards were placed on the College, which stood without 



THOMAS DALY ELL, OP BINNS. 395 

the walls, and those at the palace were doubled for addi- 
tional security to the royal duke and his family. 

Undismayed by all these warlike preparations, the stu- 
dents, many of whom were armed with swords and pistols 
in their belts, mustered in the High School yard, and witli 
loud shouts bore, shoulder high, an effigy of the Holy 
Father, clad in pontifical robes, with mitre and keys, 
down the narrow wynd that led from the school to the 
wynd of the Blackfriars, from whence they boldly issued 
by an archway into the lower end of the High- street ; and 
there, after reading an accusation and sentence, amid a 
general cry of Par eat Papa! they set fire to the effigy, 
which was hollow and filled with gunpowder. To these 
proceedings the city militia offered no opposition ; but, 
according to the history of this affiiir, published in Pater- 
noster-row in 1681, " on the first report of what was doing, 
General Dalyell galloped in with his dragoons through the 
Netherbow-porte, and was followed by the infantry under 
the Earl of Mar." 

A scuffle ensued. The Earl of Linlithgow, a Catholic 
peer, with a few of his Foot Guards, dispersed the students 
sword in hand, and in making a pass at one of them, fell, 
amid loud laughter, prostrate before the blazing figure, 
which was burned to the complete satisfaction of all con- 
cerned therein. Many students were captured and threat- 
ened with torture by the Council ; but for his loyalty in 
this affair, the house of the Lord Provost, an old manor 
at Priestfield, near Duddingstone, was one night set on 
fire by ignited powder-balls, and burned to the ground. 
A proclamation was issued, banishing all students fifteen 
miles from the capital, and for closing the gates of the 
university ; but the circumstance of a gunpowder barrel, 
bearing the Edinburgh Castle mark, being found near 
Priestfield, caused a general suspicion that some officers 

of the garrison had a hand in the affair. A reward of 
two hundred merks was offered for each of the leaders in 
these outrages ; but it was to the honour of the students 
that not one was betrayed by his comrades. 

The civil commotions were now of a nature so serious, 

diat the local government forced the magistrates of Edin- 



S96 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. j 

i 

burgh to nuiiiber the inhabitants of tlie city and its 
suburbs, and to make accurate lists of all men and women 
between the ages of sixteen and sixty, for the information 
of the Lords of Council. The name, rank, or professiou 
of persons in lodgings or hostelries, and of all strangers in 
the city, were to be delivered nightly by the bailies to 
the captain of the city guard, who, under a penalty of 
100^. Scots, was to send it to the commander-in-chief, or 
officer next in command. 

On the 15th of November, 1G81, Dalyell raised that 
celebrated dragoon regiment, so well known in military 
history as the Scots Greys, from the peculiar colour of 
their horses. They were a corps of horse-grenadiers, and 
were recruited almost exclusively among the sons of the 
Cavalier gentry and their tenants.* The regiment is now 
numbered as the 2nd Cavalry of the Line. They wore 
the old heavy-skirted buff coat; and it is worthy of 
remark, that the last time such a garment was worn in 
the British service was by the colonel who commanded 
them at Minden, seventy-four years after. 

Captain Creichton mentions that, when he was lying 
in his lodgings at Edinburgh, suffering from sword wounds 
received at Aii"smoss, Dalyell was wont to visit him 
daily, as he went to the Duke's Court at Holyrood, and 
once " did me the honour," he continues, " to mention me 
and my services to His Koyal Highness, who was desirous 
to see me. I was admitted to kiss his hand, and ordered 
to sit down in consequence of my honourable wounds, 
which would not suffer me to stand without great pain." 

About this time the Reverend John Blackadder, a pious 
and good man, who had long continued preaching in soli- 
tary places, revisited his native country, after having 
been in Holland, and was captured by a party of soldiers, 
and brought to Edinburgh, where Johnstone, the town 
major, at once conveyed him, under escort, to the house 
of Dalyell, in the Canongate. The account of their 
interview, and of the examination of Blackadder before 

* In a muster-roll of Captain Murray's ScottisU company, at this 
time, I find " Corporall Sir David Livingstone." 



THOMAS DALYELL, OF BINXS. 397 

the inexorable Lords of Council, are grapliically detaile(3 
in tlie memoirs of that nnfortiinate Covenanter. 

The Major conducted him down that long and ancient 
street to where the General lived, near the old palace 
porch, which has now been demolished. The prisoner 
was accompanied by his son Thomas, who in after yeai-s 
ilied a merchant in New England. It chanced that the 
dreaded Dalyell, whoso white vow-beard and lofty bald 
head impressed with fear and respect all on whom he bent 
his stern grey eye, opened the door as they approached, 
being probably about to walk forth. 

'• I have brought you a prisoner," said Major Johnstone. 

" Take him to the guard," replied Dalyell, briefly. 

On this the poor minister, whose emotions on finding 
himself confronted by the scourge of the Covenanters 
must have been far from enviable, stepped up the stair, 
and said timidly — 

" Sir, may I speak with you a little ?" 

''You, sir, have spoken too much already," replied 
Dalyell, in anger, for he never controlled his wrath at the 
sight of a Covenanter. "I should hang you with my 
own hands, over that outshot !" 

At that moment Dalyell knew not who Blackadder 
really was; but finding him in a mood so sullen, and 
aware that the old man's anger was not to be trifled with, 
the Major took his prisoner away. Instead, however, of 
consigning him to the common guard-house — for Black- 
adder was a man alike venerable by his years and cha- 
racter — he gave him a room in the house of Captain 
Murray, of Philiphaugh, where he remained until he was 
brought to the dread Council chamber for examination 
before the Duke of Kothes, then Lord High Chancellor 
of Scotland; Sir George Mackenzie, of Kosehaugh, King's 
Advocate ; General Dalyell, and Paterson, the last Bishop 
of Edinburgh. 

" Are you a minister ?" asked Rothea. 

" I am," replied Blackadder. 

" Where r' 

" At Troqueer, in Galloway,** 

** How long since V 



89S THE CAVALIERS OP FORTUNE. 

"Since 1653." 

" Did you excommunicate the King at the Torwood, or 
were you there at the time ?" continued the Chancellor. 

" I have not been at the Torwood for these four 
yeai's." 

" But what do you think of it (the excommunication)? 
Do you approve of it V 

He was asked the usual ensnaring questions (and, like 
other prisoners, had the instruments of torture on the 
table before him) as to whether he approved of the exe- 
cution of Charles I. ; if he had preached in the fields and 
on the hill-sides, and so forth ; but his answers proved 
unsatisfactory, and, after a long examination, he was sent 
back to Philiphaugh's apartments at Holyrood. 

On the morning of the next day he sent his son Thoma.^ 
to a kinsman named Blackadder, who bore the rank of 
colonel, and had been Dalyell's comrade in the expedition 
at Skelko Castle in 1654, and who now exerted himself 
in his favour, and made such interest with the stern 
General, that he received the recusant divine with great 
politeness in the forenoon, when he was again brought 
before the Council. 

" Mr. Blackadder," said he, " of what family are you — 
the House of Tulliallan ?" 

" Yes, General, I am the nearest alive now, to represent 
that family, although it is now ruined and brought so low." 

Dalyell was also allied by blood to the family of Tul- 
liallan. 

" Are you the son of Sir John Blackadder 1" asked 
Bishop Paterson ; but the inflexible Covenanter declined 
his authority as a spiritual lord, and would not reply even 
to this trivial question. 

In the sequel, he was sent prisoner to the Bass, escorted 
by three Life Guardsmen, and an officer named Bollock, 
who threatened to pistol him at Fisher-row, when the 
people gathered to see him pass. On that dreary rock, 
which was then the home of many a broken heart, the old 
man died in his seventieth year, and he now lies in the 
churchyard of North Berwick.* 

• See Crichton'a Memoirs of Blackadder. 



THOMAS DAL YELL, OF EINNS. 399 

The publication of a stern and high-toned manifesto 
against Charles Stuart, and all supporters of his authority, 
together with the secret murder of two gentlemen of the 
Life Guards, who had been particularly active in dis- 
covering conventicles, and who were assassinated a few 
nights after its appearance in November, 1684, excited 
great alarm in the minds of the Scottish ministry. An 
oath, abjuring the principles inculcated by this document, 
was ordained to be put to all persons above sixteen years 
of age, and capital punishment was the penalty of all who 
refused it. Dalyell took measures still more decisive with 
the parish where the guardsmen were murdered ; and he 
marched a body of troops to Livingstone, where the 
officers had authority to summon before them the inha- 
bitants of that parish, and of five others adjacent, that 
they might be interrogated upon the late seditious mani- 
festo. 

Those who owned it were instantly to be sliot ; and 
those who refused to answer were also to be shot. Officers 
and soldiers were -sent through Edinburgh — particularly 
to the Calton, where the poorest and most humble class 
of citizens resided — to enforce the oath of abjuration and 
ask ensnaring questions, as to whether the rising at Both- 
well was a rebellion, and the slaying of Archbishop Sharpe 
a murder 2 " Old women were taken from their wheels, 
and journeymen and apprentices from the forge, to answer 
these teazing and captious questions," and the thumbikins 
were always at hand to freslien their memories. 

A document preserved in the General Kegister House 
at Edinburgh, signed by Charles II. at Windsor, 16th of 
June, 1684, and printed by a literary club, affiDrds us a list 
of the Scottish standing forces, then commanded by 
Dalyell, and irrespective of the militia which formed the 
main strength of the country. 

Reduced since Bothwell, the Life Guards then con- 
sisted of a hundred men ; each officer was furnished with 
two horses ; the pay, sterling, of a captain was \l. per 
diem ; of the lieutenants 12^. ; of the cornets 7s. ; of the 
troopers 2s. 6d. 

His Majesty's regiment of Foot Guards, still com 



400 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

manded by Lieut.-General George, Earl of Linlithgow, 
consisted often companies, each consisting of three officers, 
two sergeants, two drummers, and seventy-three rank and 
file, making a total strength, stajQf included, of eiglit 
hundred and seven men. 

The grenadiers of the Foot Guard were the same in 
number as the ten preceding companies. 

The Earl of Mar's regiment consisted of eleven com- 
panies of eighty strong. The pay of a captain of infantry 
was 8s. sterling per diem ; the privates received 5d. 

A. regiment of horse (armed with sword and pistol), 
consisting of five troops of fiity men each, including ofHcers 
and men. 

A regiment of dragoons (armed with sword, pistol, and 
musket, for service on horseback or on foot), tlie Scots 
Greys, consisting cf " six companies," also of fifty-nine 
each, including officers. All troopers received Is. per 
diem. 

The garrison ol Edinburgh Castle consisted of 5 officers 
and 121 soldiers; of Stirling Castle, 3 officers and 47 
soldiers ; of Dunbarton Castle, 3 officers and 32 soldiers ; 
of the Bass Rock, 1 officer and 28 soldiers. 

The train of artillery was commanded by a Master of 
the Ordnance, whose pay was 120^. per annum, with a 
conductor, engineer, fireworker, and master gunners. — 
{^Miscellany of the Maitland Club.) 

Dalyell's pay as a Scottish General was iOOl. [r 
annum. 

Assisted by a militia, this small force proved sufficiei: , 
for a time, to coerce all the Lowlands of Scothind. 

In July, this year, Mr. William Spence, a follower of tl <^ 
recently forfeited Marquis of Argyle, was tortured by t" 
Privy Coimcil, tliat he might be forced to reveal all 
knew of that noble's intrigues with the English, and 
read certain letters in cypher, which were placed befc 
him by Major Holmes ; but on the torture failing to pi 
duce the desired effijct, "he was," according to Loi 
Fountainhall, " put in General Daly ell's hands; and it\v.>^ 
reported that by a hair shirt and pricking (i. e., with a 
needle), as the witches are used, lie was five, nights ke^'C 



THOMAS DALYELL, OF BIXNS. 401 

froift sleep, till he was half distracted. He ate very little 
that he might require less sleep; yet all this while he dis- 
covered ijothing; though had he done so, little credit was 
to be given to what he should say at such a time." 

After this is the following entry : — 

"August 7th, 1684. At Privy Council, Spence (meit- 
tioned 26th July) is again tortured, and has his thumbs 
crushed with thumbiekins. It is a new invention used 
among the colliers when transgressors, and discovered by 
General Dalzicll and Drummond, they having seen them 
used in IMuscovy. After this, when they were about to 
put him in the boots, he, being fj-ightened, desired time, 
and he w^ould declare what he knew ; whereon they gave 
him some time, and sequestrated him in the Castle of 
Edinburgh, as a place where he would be free from any 
bad advice or impression to be obstinate in not revealing.'* 

There is something alike quaint and horrible in the 
quiet and matter-of-fact way in which this old senator 
records such extra-judicial barbarities ; but instruments 
of torture were then as necessary to the Privy Council as 
the pen and ink with which their minutes were recorded. 

To repress the reviving spirit of the Covenanters, four 
Commissions of Lieutenancy were, in Sei:)tember, ordained 
to meet at Glasgow, Ayi% Dumfries, and Dunse. The 
first, as Dalyell ordered, to be guarded by Lord Ross's 
troop of Horse and Captain Inglis's Dragoons ; the second 
by the troop of Guards and his own Grey Dragoons ; the 
third by the Horse of Claverhouse, Drumlanrig, and 
Strachan ; the fourth by the Horse of Balcarris and Lord 
Charles Murray's Dragoons ; but now the horrors of this 
oivil and military persecution received a check by the 
death of Charles II. on the 6th February 1685, and on 
the accession of his brother, who was immediately pro- 
claimed at Edinburgh, James VII. of Scotland, by the 
Lyon King and magistrates, and Dalyell received a new 
commission as commander-in-chief of the kingdom ; but 
the Catholic tendencies of the new court — tendencies to 
which, with all his hatred of Covenanters and Low Church- 
men, " the old Muscovite" was rigidly averse — would not 
have permitted him to retain his authority long. 



402 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

Death now, however, solved the important problem of 
how he was to act at this peculiarly dangerous juncture ; 
he was thus, to use the words of his comrade Creichton, 
*' rescued from the difficulties he was likely to be under, 
between the notions he had of duty to his prince on one 
side, and true zeal for his religion on the other ;" as he 
expired suddenly at his house in the Canougate of Edin- 
burgh, in the month of July, 1685. 

On the 7th August, while the minute-guns boomed 
from the dark portholes of the ancient half-moon battery 
of the castle, his body, in a magnificent hearse, drawn by 
plumed horses, and having six pieces of brass cannon, his 
led charger, his suit of armour, and his many trophies, 
sword, spurs, helmet, and gauntlets, and his general's 
baton, all borne by officers of rank, and escorted by all 
the standing forces in Edinburgh, with drums muffled, 
standards craped, and arms reversed, was slowly conveyed 
through the western gate of the city to Linlithgowshire, 
and interred in the family vault of the Dalyells at Binns, 
in the parish of Abercorn. 

There the persecuting Cavalier rests in peace, though 
the superstitious peasantry still aver that his tall, thin, 
and venerable figure, in buff coat and head-piece, with his 
vast white beard floating from his grim visage to his 
military girdle, is seen " iu glimpses of the moon," flitting, 
like an unquiet spirit, about the old manor house, or in 
the avenues and parks which were formed by himself 
around it. 

He died in his eighty-fifth year. 

The hearts of the Covenanters gathered hope, and held 
jubilee at his death ; and if all be true that is recorded ot 
him, it can scarcely be a matter for wonder that his name 
and memory are still execrated in Scotland, and that the 
reputation he has left behind him is not one to be 
envied. 

General Drummond, his old Russian comrade, succeeded 
him as Commander-in-Chiefof the Scottish army; Charles, 
Earl of Dunmore, was appointed Colonel of the Scots 
Greys, and the Laird of Livingstone filled the seat left 



THOMAS DALYELL, OF BINNS. 405 

vacant by him, as Commissioner in Parliament for tlie 
sliire of Linlithgow. 

His son Thomas, who succeeded him, was created a 
baronet of Nova Scotia, and left a daughter, Magdalene 
Daly ell, who, by her marriage with James Menteith, of 
Auldcathie, transmitted the property to her son, who 
thus represented the ancient line of the Earls of Menteith. 

In reviewing the life of this singular officer, I cannot 
do better than quote the words of one of the most tem- 
perate and popular of Scottish writers : — 

" There are two ways of contemplating the chai"acter 
even of so blood-stained a persecutor as Dalyell. He had^ 
it must be remarked, served royalty upon principle in its 
ivorst days, and seen a monarch beheaded by a small 
party of his rebellious subjects, and a great part of the 
community, including himself, deprived of their property, 
and obliged to fly for their lives to foreign lands ; and all 
this was on account of one particular luay of viewing 
politics and religion. When the usual authorities of the 
land regained their ascendancy, Dalyell must naturally 
have been disposed to justify and support very severe 
measures, in order to prevent the recurrence of sucli a 
period as the Civil War and the Usurpation. Thus all 
his cruelties are resolved into an abstract principle, to the 
relief of his personal character, which otherwise, we do 
not doubt, might be very good. How often do we see, 
even in modern times, actions justified upon general 
views, which would be shuddered at if they stood upon 
their naked merits, and were to be performed upon the 
sole responsibility of the individual !" 

Such was the chequered military career of the first 
colonel of the old Scots Greys, certainly one of the most 
remarkable men of a time replete with bloodshed and 
cruelty. 

The persecuted and the persecutor — the fiery Cavalier 
and the stern Covenanter — are alike in their quiet graves,, 
and the grass of nearly two hundred years has grown and 
withered over them. Their strife is becoming, indeed, a 
tale of the times of old ; yet few Scotsmen can look back 



404 THE CAVALIERS OF FORTUNE. 

without emotions of sorrow and compassion to those dark 
days of religious madness and political misrule when, with 
all their bravery, their forefathers perpetrated such deeds 
as made " the angels weep." But, happily for us, time 
and the grave mellow the memory of all things. 



THC EKIX 



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